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I PAID HITLER

FRITZ THYSSEN

Published in association with
COOPERATION PUBUSHINQ GO., mC.,
NEW YORK

HODDER AND STOUGHTON, LTD.
LONDON

First printed November^ 1941

hSad* and PrinUd in Great Britain for Hodder & Stoughton, Limited, London
hy Wyman & Sons Lmited, London, Reading and Fahenkam

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD

T his extraordinary book has an extraordinary
story. And this story must be told.

When, at the outbreak of the war in September,
1939, Fritz Thyssen, the great German industrialist,
fled from Germany to Switzerland, almost all the
newspapers, magazines, syndicates, and publishers of
the world tried to obtain his memoirs, or at least the
true story of his rupture with Hitler and his escape
from Nazi Germany.

The story of the man who was the greatest industrial
power in Germany, who was an ardent German
nationalist, who organised the passive resistance in
the Ruhr in 1923 ; the man who for more than fifteen
years backed Hitler and financed his movement — the
story of the great German capitalist who helped the
Nazis into power because he believed that they were
the people who could save his country from Bolshevism
and who have now confiscated all his property — this is
indeed one of the most unusual stories of this world crisis.

In this great competition among publishers to obtain
Thyssen’s memoirs, I have taken part myself and it
happened to be that I won. I should like to tell in
a few lines, why and how.

pubusher’s foreword

During the past ten years I have directed, in
Paris, an international nevyspaper syndicate called
COOPERATION. The programme of this organisa-
tion was to unite the leading international statesmen
and to pubUsh their views on international affairs all
over the world. My first contributors were Lord Cecil,
Sir Austen Chamberlain, Arthur Henderson, Paul
Painlev^, Louis Loucheur, Henri de Jouvenel, and
some others. As the organisation grew in the years
before the war, it obtained an almost monopolistic
position in handling the exclusive world rights of the
articles of about a hundred leading statesmen such
as Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff
Cooper, Lord Samuel, Major Attlee, Hugh Dalton,
Paul Reynaud, Edouard Herriot, Leon Blum, P. E.
Flandin, Yvqn Delbos, and many others from England,
France, Spain, Belgium, Scandinavia, and the Balkans.
These articles, issued almost daily, have been printed
all over the world in some four hundred newspapers
in alx)ut seventy countries. The American public
may recall these articles published before the war in
the United States by a group of over twenty leading
independent newspapers from coast to coast, headed
by the New York Herald Tribune.

1 have tried to present all the conflicting views of
Europe and have often published also the articles of
the Fascist spokesman, Virginio Gayda, inasmuch as
it was possible. for us to print also from time to time
foreign articles in Italian newspapers. But I have
never published Nazi articles. In fact, as the crisis
grew, die policy of my organisation became more and
more openly anti-Nazi until it was probably the only
organisation of this kind fighting Nazi influence and

PX»L1IHBR*I rORBWOKD

the Goebbcls machine on the European continent.
These publications must have had some effect, as
one day I received the highest tribute from Hitler
himself when, in his first speech after the Munich
agreement at Saarbriicken, he shouted hysterically
that “ this propaganda by Churchill, Eden and Duff
Cooper must stop. . .

1 am obliged to mention this because in connection
with the Thyssen memoirs I shall have to make a few
statements which, under the circumstances, can be
proved only by my past record.

When Thyssen arrived in Locarno he was unable to
reply to any request for publication because he had
given his word of honour to the Swiss government
that, while residing in Swiss territory, he would refrain
from any declaration or publication. Consequently,
I did not think it would be of any use to go to sec
him myself and I therefore tried to approach him
through various friends. I received no encouragement
whatsoever. In March, 1940, Thyssen went from
Switzerland to Brussels to visit his dying mother and
1 learned that from Brussels he woiild go to Paris.

On the 3rd of April, I received in my ofiice in Paris
a telephone call from the Sunday Express in London
and the Paris Soir, newspapers with whom I have long
had business relations, saying that they had been
doing their utmost to obtain the story of Mr. Thyssen
but were unable to approach him. They asked me
whether I could help ^em.

I immediately went to see M. Paul Reynaud who
was Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as Premier. I
explained to him the political importance . of the
publication of Thyssen’s memoirs and he emphatically

pubusher’s poreworo

agreed with me. The problem was how to persuade
Thyssen to write and publish without further delay.

I told M. Reynaud that I knew the man who could
introduce me to Thyssen and who could probably
persuade him to entrust the publication of his memoirs
to me. _ Unfortunately, this man, who was a friend of
Thyssen, was in London and it was extremely difficult
in view of the existing censorship and prohibition of
international telephone calls to put him in touch with
Thyssen. M. Reynaud instructed one of his attaches
to help me and permitted me to use the telephone line
of the Qpai d’CDrsay to the French Embassy building
in London.

I spent a most dramatic day and almost a whole
night in the attache’s room at the Quai d’Orsay. I
left M. Reynaud’s cabinet at about the same time as
the Paris-Brussels Express on which Thyssen was to
travel left Brussels. As we did not know where
Thyssen was staying in Paris, the Shret^ was charged
to report his movements. We received about half-
hourly messages : “ Thyssen crossed the frontier . . . ,”
“ Thyssen passed St. Quentin . . . ,” “ Thyssen arrived
at the Gare du Nord . . . ,” and finally, “ Mr. and
Mrs. Thyssen arrived at the Crillon Hotel. . .

I inunediately attempted to arrange a telephone
communication between Thyssen and our mutual
friend in London, but it took almost twenty-four
horns before we succeeded. Finally they were both
on the telephone, talking without censorship inter-
ference on the official line of the French Foreign
Ministry for about half an hotur. The following day
I received a note firom Mr. Thyssen asking me to come
Rnd see him at the Crillon.

publisher’s foreword

Our first meeting was very cordial and lasted almost
two hours. He said that he was prepared to publish
immediately the letters which he addressed to Hitler,
Goering, and other officials after his rupture with
the Nazis and in which he explained why he had left
Germany. In fact, he had already sent these letters
to a friend of his in America with a view to publishing
them. He said he would be glad if these letters
could also be printed in England, in France, and in
as many other countries as possible, but that he
would not like to publish anything more at the
moment.

I saw Thyssen every day while he was in Paris.
I asked him point-blank, “ Do you want to help us
destroy Hitler or not ? ” When his reply was an
unconditional “ Yes ” I tried to make him agree
with me that • the things he had to say and the
documents and material he possessed must be published
during the war and not after if they were to produce
their full effect. After the third or fourth conversation
he came to understand that in the middle of a war
against Hitlerism there was no use having powerful
weapons in one’s possession and withholding them
from instant use.

Once he decided to write his memoirs he was most
anxious to proceed as quickly as possible. He wanted
his letters to be published without delay, even before
the completion of his book. These letters appeared
in the United States in Life magazine on April 29,
1940. Simultaneously, they were published in London
in the Sunday Express, and in France in Paris Soir.

Thyssen was anxious to have some of his papers
which he had deposited in the vaults of a bank at

nmusHSR’s forxworo

Lucerne in Switzerland. I discussed the matter at
the Qjuai d’Orsay and they were prepared to send a
special' diplomatic courier to Lucerne in order to
bring the papers to France. After a week’s stay in
Paris; Mr. and Mrs. Thyssen left for Monte Carlo.
The papers arrived from Switzerland four days later
and I went down to the ^viera with a collaborator
of mine, who was to help Thyssen in preparing the
book, and a secretary. Thyssen was staying at the
Hotd de Paris in Monte Carlo. I placed my
collaborator near him at the Beau Rivage Hotel, and
in order to evade the attention of the innumerable
Italian spies who were in that region at that time, I
went to stay about ten miles away at the Grand Hotel
at Cap Ferrat, which is one of the quietest places in
the most charming spot of the Riviera. There were
only a few guests in the hotel, among them Sir Nevile
Henderson, the former British Ambassador to
Germany who, at that time, had just finished writing
his book about the failure of his mission in Berlin.
Next to the hotel was the villa of former Premier
Flandin whom I saw often while I was staying at Cap
Ferrat. He was very much interested in the question
why Thyssen had become such an enemy of Hitler.

I spent about three weeks on the Riviera, working
with Thyssen day and night. He usuaUy started work
at about half-past nine in the morning and dictated
without interruption for about three hours. He
dictated rapidly and fluently in German and partly
in French, jumping from one subject to the other,
giving the impression of a man filled to the exploding
point with things to tell, not knowing how to get rid
them quickest. At one o’clock we usually went to

publisher’s porewors

lunch together, continuing the work in lengthy dis-
cussions. The dictation of the morning was typed in
the afternoon and submitted to him in the evening.
He corrected every page most meticulously, two or
three times, until he finally approved the individual
chapters.

During our collaboration in Monte Carlo, Thyssen
made an unexpected impression on me. I had never
met Thyssen before but he was exactly the contrary
of the type one would imagine to be a steel king and
leading armament manufacturer, and the backer of
Nazism. He was a charming old gentleman, unusually
witty, with a perfect sense of humour. He loved good
food and the best wines, and our luncheons rarely
took less than three hours. I drove him to all the
famous restaurants of the Riviera — to the Chateau
Madrid up in the mountains, the Bonne Auberge near
Antibes, the Colombe d’Or in romantic St. Paul, and
all the other places of the highest gastronomic culture.
During these luncheons Thyssen told one story after
another, some of them unbelievable. Not one of the
Nazi leaders and very few of his industrial colleagues
escaped his most malicious remarks. He told dozens
of stories about the private lives of the German leaders
which, unfortunately, cannot be printed in this book.

When talking about the serious problems and of his
experiences, he would interrupt his monologue almost
daily, pounding his fist against his forehead and
exclaiming to himself, “ Bin Dummkopf war ich . . . !
Bin Dummkopf war ich . . . ! ” (“ What a fool I have
been . . . ! What a fool I have been ...!”) He
would then repeat the express hope that his book
would be published quickly in America. “ I wish

pubusher’s foreword

I could tell American industrialists about my
experiences,” was one of the remarks he made to me
many times.

I had the definite impression that his feeling against
Hitler was not only sincere, but passionately sincere.
He answered every question I put to him and told
everything he knew — with one exception. He did
not want to tell me what were the exact amounts he
had given to the Nazis, although he told me that he
had somewhere in a safe place the receipts of all the
monies paid by him. 1 was rather anxious to get a
photostatic copy of these receipts in order to illustrate
the book. But he was unwilling to tell me where
they were.

On May the loth, at 8 o’clock in the morning, I
turned on the radio and heard the voice of the French
Minister of Information, M. Frossard, announcing
that at dawn the German army had crossed the
frontiers of Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg, and
that the war in the west had started. At lo a.m. I
brought the news to Thyssen. His reaction was very
peculiar. He became pale and simply did not want
to believe it. He said he knew Aat the German
General Staff had always been against an attack on
the west, and the only reason he could offer to explain
it was that by this means the army High Command
wanted to get rid of the Nazis, driving them to sure
defeat. He said he knew the exact production figures
of the German heavy industry, the shortage of certain
raw materials, and the bad quality of steel used in
some armoured divisions, and that this war could not
possibly be won by Germany. I was never able to
understand whether the explanation of the striking

publisher’s foreword

German success was the extraordinary weakness of
the French army or the ultra-efficiency of the Nazi
war lords who had been able to hide even from the
Chairman of the German Steel Trust what they were
producing.

By the end of May we had almost finished the
work. More than half the book was completed,
corrected, and approved for publication by Thyssen.
The remaining chapters had all been dictated, but
before the final editing it was necessary to check up
some dates and facts which could not be done in
Monte Carlo. So I went back to Paris with the
understanding that I should return to Monte Carlo
about the beginning of June in order to get the book
ready for immediate publication.

When I arrived back in Paris the German army had
already broken through at Sedan. What happened
during the following days and what life during that
period in Paris was like, everybody knows. The
situation became more and more dangerous by the
hour and I could not think of leaving my office for
another trip to Monte Carlo without knowing whether
the German army would be stopped somewhere or
whether we should have to flee from Paris.

I left Paris on the i ith of June, at night by motor-car,
and after an unbelievable drive of fourteen hours,
under conditions which have already been described
in so many books, I arrived in Tours. I was able
to take with me only very little in the way of personal
belongings but I had with me the Thyssen manu-
script Two days later I was again on the road to
Bordeaux, and after the capitulation of France an
English destroyer took me out to sea where I was

PtmUSHSR’s FORKWORD

trantferred to a British cargo ship which brought me
to England. I left my car and most of the things 1
had been able to save from Paris in the harbour at
Bordeaux, but I was able to save Thyssen’s manuscript.

After my arrival in London, political friends, news-
papers, and publishers urged me to publish the
Thyssen book ; but I had a feeling that I could not
do so without knowing what had happened to Thyssen
and whether or not he was in a safe place. I tried
for months to trace him, but it was impossible to
obtain any authentic information. Some sources said
he had escaped to America, others that he was still
on the Riviera, and others that he had been delivered
by the French to the Gestapo. Under these circum-
stances I felt unable to publish any part of Thyssen’s
memoirs.

I came over from England to the United States in
February, 1941, hoping I would be able to find out
exactly what had happened to Thyssen and where
he was. Unfortunately, nobody knew anything except
that he must be in the hands of the Gestapo ; other-
wise his family in South America or his friends in the
United States would have heard from him in the
course of an entire year. 1 had to accept, therefore,
as a given situation that he had been unable to escape
after the collapse of France and that he is probably
in a concentration camp in the hands of the Gestapo.
I felt for many months that tmder such circumstances
this book could not be published as the publication
almost certainly would cause Thyssen’s assassination.

I wish to make myself clear and to avoid any
misunderstanding. I did not intend to defend
Thyssen or to protect him. I wa4 always aware that

* . V /

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A chanictcristic page of the manuscript “ I Paid Hitler,” with Fritz Thyssen’s
original handwriting in Ficnch.

PVSUSBXIl’S rOUBWOSO

he was one of the men most responsible for the rise
of Hitler and for the seeking of power by the National
Socialists in Germany. 1 also knew that he was
probably the man most responsible for Germany’s
torpedoing of the Dbarmament Conference, and that
he and some of his friends were probably more
responsible even than Hitler for the miseries unleashed
by the Nazis on the world. For about twenty years
Fritz Thyssen played a very big and very dangerous
political game and I do not believe that before the
judgment seat of History his confession, “ What a ibol
I have been,” is sufficient defence for acquittal.

But I had nothing to do with Thyssen on the public
forum. I met him when he was a refugee. 1 made
with him an agreement as between author and
publisher and I have had a very strong feeling that I
could not publish his memoirs imtil 1 was sure either
that he was firec or that he was dead.

But as the months passed and the war spread, more
and more people, public men and publishers, were
trying to persuade me that there was no place for
personal consideration in this matter. That this
manuscript was far too important a political and
historical document. And that 1 could not take the
responsibility of withholding it from publication.
They pointed out that if Thyssen had been put in a
concentration camp, he was almost certainly dead ;
and if he was still alive, nothing could save him. If
he had met the fate of the other enemies of Nazism in
a concentration camp, he certainly must have had the
hope that his memoirs would be published, as this
was the only weapon with which he could strike back
at Hitler. But whatever his personal fate, it cannot

1 6 pubushbr’s fo^word

be taken into consideration when the free peoples of
the world are fighting a desperate war against
Hitlerism, and when the publication of this unique
document may enlighten the democracies and may
help them to act in time to prevent Nazism from
spreading to the Western Hemisphere.

After fourteen months of scruples and hesitations, I
finally came to the conclusion that this book could
not be withheld any longer from the public. I now
believe that if Thyssen is in a concentration camp and
if he is still alive, the further postponement of the
publication of his memoirs would certainly not save
him. On the contrary, I even believe and hope the
publication might give him some satisfaction.

But quite apart from the effect this publication might
have on his personal life, we are engaged in a life and
death struggle against Hitlerism and whatever hurts
Hitler is right for us. I think we should not have the
weakness to yield to that old and horrible Gestapo
blackmail of paralysing the activities of free people
by torturing friends and relatives in concentration
camps. I think we should have the strength to
sacrifice those who are in the hands of the Gestapo,
however near they are personally to us, and to keep
on fighting under all circumstances. We shall never
be able to destroy this monstrous system of human
slavery if in dealing with it we let ourselves be guided
by sentiment and not by the coldest reasoning.

It was Hitler’s attack On Russia that decided me
and that provided the final argument for the decision
to publish this bobk. Immediately after the start of
the Russo-German war we heard the voices of people
in highest positions saying that Hitler had returned

PintUSHBlt’s FOREWORD

»7

to his old programme and that he is the man who
will save us from Communism. It had been in order
to prove that this last was the greatest possible mis-
judgment of Nazism that Fritz Thyssen had decided
to appeal to the world and to tell to the free nations
his experiences. The fate of Fritz Thyssen, the great
German nationalist, the mightiest German industrialist,
and the devoted Catholic, is the outstanding example
of how Hitler is protecting the patriots, the
industrialists, and the Christians from Communism.

Emery Reves,

PRESIDENT,

Cooperation Publishing Co., Inc.

* 4i «

The Author’s Foreword, all of Part I, Chapters i,
2 and 3 of Part II, Chapters 3, 5, 6, and 7 of Part III,
and Chapter 3 in Part IV have been revised, corrected,
and finally approved for publication by Fritz Thyssen.

The remaining chapters have been dictated by him,
but have not been corrected or revised. Some of
these chapters contain repetitions ; some paragraphs
are not in the right place. It would have been easy
to edit these chapters and to avoid the lack of smooth-
ness in some sections, but we thought they should
remain in the form in which they were left by
Thyssen.

In some places where it was inevitable we have
added some explanatory notes in order to make clear

pubusrbr’s foreword

problems and circumstances, but all of this additional
material is marked either with “ Publisher’s Note,”
or with “ Historical Note.”

There is also appended at the back of the book a
series of short biographical sketches of the principal
people mentioned by Thyssen.

E. R

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

T his book aims to be something more than the
story of an error of whose ttagic consequences
I am as well aware as anybody else. It is not enough
to regret the past ; one must profit from the lessons
one has learned. The war into which Hitler has
precipitated the world demands of all men worthy of
the name that they should gird their loins and fight.

Fot ten years before he came to power I supported
Hitler and his party. I myself was a National
Socialist, and I shall explain why. To-day, exiled
and fugitive because I did my duty in counselling
against war, I wish to contribute to the fall of Adolf
Hitler by enlightening public opinion in Germany and
the world in general concerning the Fiihrer and the
lesser so-called leaders of contemporary Germany.

Hitler deceived me, as he has deceived the German
people as a whole and all men of good will. It may
perhaps be said — to me and to all Germans — that we
should not have allowed ourselves to be deceived.
For my part I accept the validity of this charge. I
plead guilty. I was completely mistaken regarding
Hitler and his party. I believed in his promises, in
his loyalty, in his p^itical genius. The same mistake

author’s foreword

has been made by professional politicians. Hitler was
trusted by the Catholics and even by the Jews. Of
this I could give many examples.

Hitler has deceived us all. But afler his accession
to p>ower he succeeded in misleading foreign statesmen,
just as he misled the Germans before 1933.

If I wished to attempt to justify myself, I might say
that people outside Germany were better informed
concerning the initial crime of the regime than we
were in Germany. I speak of the burning of the
Reichstag. Nevertheless, the great nations of Europe
continued to maintain normal diplomatic relations
with the Nazi incendiaries and assassins. Their
ambassadors and ministers broke bread with them,
received them in their embassies and legations, and
shook hands with them as with honest men. We in
Germany can at least proffer the excuse that we did
not know the truth.

Hitler rearmed Germany to an incredible degree
and at an unheard-of speed. The Great Powers
closed their eyes to this fact. Did they really not
recognise the danger, or did they wish to ignore it?
Whichever it may be, they took no measures to
prevent Germany’s illegal rearmament. They did
not even arm themselves to meet the danger in time.
From the very outset the military effort put forth by
the Nazi regime seemed entirely disproportionate to
the resources of the coimtry. Even in the early stages,
therefore, I had the presentiment that it must inevitably
lead to a catastrophe.

But Hitler carried off one outstanding diplomatic
victory after the other — successes which neither the
Weimar Republic nor Imperial Germany would have

AUTHOa’S FOREWORD

ever dared to hope for. He was able to reintroduce
compulsory military service ; he secured the military
reoccupation and the fortification of the Rhineland,
the Anschluss of Austria, the annexation of the
Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, the entry into
Prague — three years of victory without striking a
blow ! At the very moment when doubt and dis*
affection were gaining ground in the country, the .
leader of the New Germany was in a position to
checkmate his opponents in Germany by demonstrating
— which he never failed to do — the historical grandeur
of the results achieved. And he had himself pro-,
claimed to be the greatest German of all time.

The Munich Pact was mainly responsible for the
historical glamour which surrounded the National
Socialist regime. In the eyes of the masses it con-
firmed Hitler’s reputation of infallibility and enabled
the new leaders of Germany to pursue, during the
next year, a policy that has plunged the German
people into a war which it did not desire and did
not foresee.

It may be asked why, in post-war Germany, a dis-
organised country menaced by incessant economic
and social crises, and burdened by a heavy external
debt, an industrialist like me should have seen fit to
contribute to a recovery which, by consolidating the
State, would have enabled his country to maintain
its position as a Great Power in the pacific community
of human civilisation ? The followftjg pages may give
the answer to this question.

Hitler — at least, so I . and many other Germans
believed — contributed to the recovery of Germany,

author’s foreword

the rebirth of a national will and a modem social
pFOgramme. Undeniably also, his effort was sup>
ported by the masses who were behind him. And,
in a cmmtry which at one time had seven million
imemployed, it was necessary to distract these masses
from the vain promises of the radical Socialists. For
these Left-Wing Socialists had gained the upper hand
during the economic depression, just as they had
almost triumphed during the revolutionary period
following the debacle of 1918. But my hope of saving
Germany from this second danger was soon followed
by disillusionment. This disillusionment dates almost
from the beginning of the Nazi regime. During the
seven years which have elapsed since then I intervened
on several occasions with attempts to stop excesses
that were a defiance to the conscience of mankind.
On September ist, 1939, I protested with all my
energy against the impending war, and I informed
the German leaders of my intention to appeal to
world opinion against their acts.

But the main object of this book is not a negative
one. A business man must be optimistic ; otherwise
he would never undertake anything. Twice in twenty-
five years Europe has been plunged into war. The
present German regime bears the immediate
responsibility for the catastrophe, which was brought
about by a policy at once frivolous and criminal.
Nevertheless it is quite certain that the more remote
and profounder causes of this must be sought in the
conflict of 1914-1918, and in a peace conference
which proved incapable of resolving it. For, not-
withstanding certain deserving efforts, Versailles did

author’s foreword

not succeed in establishing a political apd economic
order which would have insured the world against a
new disaster.

If human civilisation is not to perish, everything
that is possible must be done to make war impossible
in Europe. But the violent solution dreamed of by
Hitler, a primitive person obsessed by ill-digested
memories, is a romantic folly and a barbarous and
bloody anachronism.

Europe must definitely be given political security
such as exists, for instance, in America. Otherwise
this will be the end of our old continent and of the
civilisation of which Europe is the cradle. If the
present ordeal is to have any meaning whatever, it
must lead to the foundation of the United States of
Europe, in one form or another. That is my conviction.

The reawakening of imperialism in the heart of
Europe, for which Hitler’s Germany bears the respon-
sibility, must compel all German patriots to reflect.
In 1923 I was able to save the Rhine and the Ruhr,
and preserve German unity. I was imprisoned and
condemned by the court-martial of the enemy. This
perhaps gives me the right to speak to-day.

By an act of criminal folly, Hitler has imperilled the
existence of a German Empire whose precarious
character was well recognised by Bismarck, its founder
and creator. During almost twenty years of his
chancellorship, following a victorious campaign against
France, his constant preoccupation was to pursue a
cautious policy designed to reassure the other Powers.
The wisdom of the founder of the ‘German Empire
was soon forgotten. The experiences of 1914, 1938
and 1939 have shown that the existence in Europe of

author’s foreword

a state of sixty to eighty million inhabitants, ruled by
imperialistic politicians commanding the formidable
war potential of modem industry, is a permanent
danger for the safety of the continent.

In 1871, the genius of a great statesman enlisted
Western culture and technique in the service of the
spirit of Pmssianism. To-day I see in this combination
the fundamental cause of political instability in
Europe. Prussianised eastern Germany has never
succeeded in casting off its colonial mentality as the
conqueror of the Slavs. In her hands, Western
technique becomes an instrument of war and is no
longer a weapon of civilisation.

Moreover, seven years of Nazi tyranny have pain-
fully impressed me with the total incompatibility of
the two Germanics — the colonial, servile Germany
of the east, originally peopled by Slavs who became
the Prussians’ serfs, and the Germany of the west, where
Christian and Roman humanism was the main civilis-
ing force. The persecution of the Christian religion,
the sadistic anti-semitism of the Prussians, so foreign
to our Rhineland population, the attempts to revive a
barbaric paganism which is inhuman in its moral
conceptions, have convinced me and many others
that the salvation of Germany and of Europe demand
the restoration of the former barrier between these
two peoples with so widely divergent mentalities.
The freedom, culture, and Christianity of western and
Catholic Germany — a country belonging definitely to
western Europe — must be safeguarded.

The spirit of western and southern Germany is
directed toward the west. Its industrial and technical
development urges it on toward the great ocean routes

author’s foreword

of the world. The Nazi conception of Lebensraum,
in the form of territories to be conquered, has no
meaning for a great industrial country which should
have the universe for its pacific domain.

Such a political reorganisation is of course not an
end in itself. The post-war world must be able to live
and to resume its suspended development. The
economic chaos and ruin which already exist will
doubtless increase as the result of the present war.
They will raise once again the question of collabora-
tion between all well-intentioned peoples for purposes
of reconstruction. Do the democratic governments
realise the gravity of these problems? Valuable
encouragement has been received from America. It
would be mad folly to revert to the economic errors
that followed upon the last war. What must be done
is to combine the resources and the good will of the
nations of Europe and of the United States of America
in order to repair the ruins, and to begin again. At
the end of this war there can be no question, as in
1918, of a suit for damages. Punishment, I hope,
will be meted out to the assassins, the criminals, and
the forgers by the German people themselves. But
may the peace be constructive ; may resentment be
banished for all time ! May we work for the future
and forget the past !

In this book I have attempted to set forth certain
ideas to which I am deeply attached. They are not
the result of improvisation. As head of one of the
greatest industrial enterprises of Germany, I have had
to cope for twenty years with the consequences of an
abortive peace. The leisures of exile have afforded
me time to reflect upon an experience which was

author’s rOUWQIUD

sometimes merely painful, sometimes tragic. The
result of my meditations is consigned to these pages.
May they be the contribution of one man of good will
to the peace which is to come 1

Fritz Thyssen

Monte Carlo, May, 1940.

CONTENTS

PAOB

Pubusher’s Foreword 5

Author’s Foreword ig

PART I. MY RUPTURE WITH HITLER’S

GERMANY 31

1. My Escape from Germany - - - 33

2. Final Rupture with Hitler - - - - 44

3. , The End of a Political Error - - - 61

PART II. THE ROAD TO THE THIRD
REICH 75

1. Defeat and Revolution - - - “77

2. National Huniiliation - - - - 89

3. My First Meeting with Hitler - - - 109

4. The Fight Against the Young Plan - - Ii8

5. My Personal and Financial Relations with

the Nazi Party 128

6. The Nazis’ Road to Power - - “ i 37

CONTENTS

PAOB

PART III. MY EXPERIENCES WITH HITLER

AND THE NAZI REGIME - - - - 147

1. Attempts at Co-operation with the Nazis - 149

2. Nazi Economy after the Transition Period - 163

3. Nazi Quack Economy - - - - 171

4. Adolf Hitler Has Failed - - - - 189

5. Nazi Organised Graft - - - - 198

6. The Anti-Jewish Campaign and the Con-

centration Camps - - - - 215

7. The Catholic Question « . . - 229

PART IV. GERMANY AND THE FUTURE
OF THE WORLD 251

1 . Fraudulent Nazi Finance . - - - 253

2. Germany at War : the Chinks in Her

Armour 267

3. The Place of the Two Germanics in a

United Europe 279

Appendix : Short biographical sketches of the

principal persons named in this book - - . 293

Index 317

ILLUSTRATIONS

Fritz Thysscn ...... Frontispiece

PACINO PAOI

A characteristic page of the manuscript “ I Paid
Hitler,” with Fritz Thyssen’s original hand-
writing in French . . . . 14

Facsimile of the contract signed by Fritz Thyssen
and Emery Reves for the publication of his
memoirs 65

Fritz Thyssen showing Hitler an industrial plant.

From left to right — Albert Vogler (Vice-
President United Steel Works), Hitler, Thyssen,

Dr. Borbel, another director United Steel
Works 80

PART ONE

MY RUPTURE WITH HITLER’S
GERMANY

CHAPTER ONE

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

O N August 15th, 1939, I arrived with my wife at
Bad Gastein in the Austrian Alps. We needed,
a rest. It had been a particularly worrying and
strenuous year.

It has been said that I went to Gastein to prepare
my escape from Germany. This is untrue. In fact,
I had left Germany early that August to visit the
Ziirich exhibition. Had I wanted to escape I could
have remained in Switzerland then. But I did not
believe that war would come. The German generals
were against it. Moreover, I had been told of state-
ments made by one of Hermann Goering’s intimate
friends, Gauleiter Terboven of Essen, from which it
appeared that all this was purely and simply a diplo-
matic game and that no one in office dreamed of
embarking upon an armed adventure. Terboven’s
remarks most certainly reflected Goering’s own opinion.
At the beginning of August Goering was opposed to
war ; his subsequent change of mind came only at the
eleventh hour. I was therefore quite reassured when
I left for Gastein.

On August 23rd I received the surprising news of

33 0

I PAID HITLER

Hitler’s pact with Stalin. Negotiations had been pro-
ceeding for a long time, but I never imagined that
they would go so far. Without this agreement with
Russia, Hitler could nev^r have embarked upon the
Polish campaign. He had been definitely warned by
the French and British ambassadors that their countries
would not tolerate an aggression agednst Poland. Our
ambassador in Paris, Count Welczek, had solemnly
informed his government on several occasions that a
German attack on Poland would be the signal for a
general outbreak of war.

The situation, moreover, was perfectly clear. Neither
France nor Great Britain could accept a second
Munich. How was it that Hitler and Ribbentrop
did not realise this fact? A year earlier, the British
Prime Minister, a man of seventy, had taken an
aeroplane for the first time in his life to fly to Germany
and negotiate with Hitler. The French Premier had
come to Munich for the same purpose. A solution
was reached by which Germany received all that she
wanted. This was an unprecedented success. No
German emperor had achieved anything comparable
to this. A great statesman like Bismarck would have
realised that Munich was an exceptional gift of the
gods. He would have done all in his power to prevent
the two great western countries from feeling that they
had been humiliated. Above all, he would have
applied himself to the pacific consolidation of the results
so easily obtained.

But what was Hitler’s line ? On March 13th, 1939,
he invaded Czechoslovakia, whose remaining territory
he had promised to respect. This seemed to me
monstrous. To break his solemn word in such con-
ditions, to insult two great nations, might perhaps

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

appear to the Nazis as a stroke of genius on the part
of the greatest politician the world has ever known
(for this is the light in which Hitler sees himself). To
me and to many other Germans, it seemed sheer
madness — a bouna forward on the road to catastrophe.

I was therefore sceptical as to the possibility of settling
the dispute with Poland by a second Munich. Two
great Powers, joined in alliance and disposing of
immense resources, do not allow themselves to be
deceived twice in the same way.

The news of the signature of the agreement with
Stalin caused me anxiety. However, relying — perhaps
too strongly — on my knowledge of the situation, I still
believed that this was just another of those spectacular
episodes which were characteristic of the regime. So
far as I could judge, it made almost no impression in
Paris and London, for the German-Russian pact did
not shake the resolution of the two democracies to
oppose any further act of violence by the force of
arms. I was not surprised. Any other policy would
have amounted to abdication of the Western Powers
— a veritable suicide. But still I did not believe that
war would come.

On August 25th I was advised that I would have
to go to Berlin for a meeting of the Reichstag. The
suddenness of such convocations is symptomatic of the
role to which that assembly has been reduced. In
the earlier days, matters were given serious study,
they were reported on by committees, and a working
session of the Reichstag was then convened. To-^ay
things are different. Members are summoned from
one day to the next to hear a declaration by Hitler.
That is what is called ‘‘ good theatre,” the sole purpose
being propaganda. The members play the part of

I PAID HITLER

walkers~on in cheap drama. For my own part,
I have always considered that my position as
member of the Reichstag carried with it a certain
responsibility and the duty to express one’s opinion.
The meeting summoned for August 25th was
cancelled. Once more I endeavoured to reassure
myself.

Meanwhile my son-in-law. Count Zichy, had come
to see us at Gastein with my daughter Anita and
my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson. They intended
to stay with us a week. Their visit was entirely
unforeseen. Straubing in South Bavaria, where they
reside, is only a few hours’ distance by car from
Gastein. I still felt that there was no special cause
for worry.

But in the evening of August 31st I received a
telegram from the Gauleiter of Essen, instructing me
to travel to Berlin and attend a Reichstag meeting
fixed for the next morning at the Kroll Opera. I
suddenly realised the gravity of the situation. It was
materially impossible for me to get to Berlin in that
time. I should have had to travel by car and by
night in order to catch the first morning plane from
Munich, which might perhaps have enabled me to
arrive just in time’ to see the end of the meeting. In
any case, the state of my health did not permit such
exertions. If I could have been in Berlin in time,
I should certainly have protested publicly against any
decision to go to war. I therefore decided to send
my excuses for being unable to attend, and at the same
time to express my opinion in no uncertain terms.
About nine o’clock in the evening I addressed to
Goering, as president of the Reichstag, the following
urgent telegram :

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

“ Received from the Essen Provincial Administration
(Gauleitung) invitation to be ready to fly to Berlin.
Unable to act on this suggestion owing to unsatisfactory
state of health.

“ In my opinion it would be possible to agree upon a
kind of truce in order to gain time for negotiation. I am
against war. A war will make Germany dependent on
Russia for raw materials and Germany will thus forego
her position as a world power.

(Signed) “ Thyssen.”

In this way, notwithstanding the material obstacle,
I felt I had done my duty as a free man and as a
responsible member of the Reichstag. I had informed
the government of my absolute opposition to war.
I must add that at that moment I had no intention
of leaving Germany. I was at once appalled and
disgusted by the prospect of an act of folly on the
part of Hitler which neither the generals nor anyone
else had been able to prevent.

The next morning my son-in-law proposed that we
listen-in to the so-called “ historic meeting ” which I
should have attended. I refused quite definitely to
hear the reasons by which Hitler would seek to justify
his madness.

The previous afternoon I had received a telegram
from my sister announcing that her son-in-law and
my nephew, von Remnitz, had Just died in the Dachau
concentration camp, I was ignorant of the conditions
under which this had happened. Before the Anschluss,
Remnitz had been the chief of the Austrian Legitimists
(i.c. Hapsburg monarchists) in the province of Salz-
burg. After the annexation of Austria the Salzburg
Nazis had tried to blackmail him. “ Pay a contribu-
tion to the party,” they had said, “ and you will not

I PAID HITLER

have to suffer the consequences of your legitimist
activity.” My nephew had refused, saying that in
independent Austria his political activity had been
considered perfectly legal. The next day he was
arrested and taken to Dachau. I had tried to inter-
vene at Vienna with Gauleiter Burckel, commissioner
of the Reich for Austria, with a view to his release.
Burckel had not even troubled to answer my appeal.
I was deeply affected by the news of my nephew’s
death. It was another tangible proof of the criminal
illegality which prevailed in Germany and against
which I had several times protested to the responsible
leaders.

I was meditating on all this while my son-in-law
was listening to Hitler on the radio. Some minutes
later he came in, quite overcome. “ Hitler,” he said,
“ announces that the German army has entered
Poland. This means war. And Hitler also says,
‘ Whoever is not with me is a traitor and shall be
treated as such.’ ”

This ominous phrase was the reply to my telegram.
What it meant was clearly shown by the miserable
end of my nephew at Dachau.

There was no possibility of my remaining in Germany
without exposing my own life and that of those dear
to me. In agreement with my wife and my son-in-
law I decided that we must leave the country. Provi-
dence had willed it that we should all be together
at this critical moment, for I should never have gone
if I had had to abandon my children as hostages to
the Gestapo.

We started on September and at seven o’clock in
the morning. I had my own car, and. my children
had come to see me with theirs. We left without

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

luggage, as if we were making an excursion. One of
the usual drives around Gastein is to take the new
Alpine road built by the former Austrian government,
to cross the Glockner pass into Italy, and to return
by the Brenner pass. On leaving Gastein we were
held up by a landslide which barred the way. There
had been a violent storm in the region on the previous
night ; masses of mud and stones had made the road
impassable, and men were at work clearing it. The
foreman told us that traffic would soon be re-estab-
lished. We waited three hours, feigning the most
complete indifference. Finally there was just enough
room for us to pass. At the frontier the chauffeur,
who had no inkling of our plans, presented my papers,
including my Reichstag deputy's card, saying that we
were making the usual excursion. I did not get out
of my car. The frontier police allowed us to pass,
saying that we must be back in German territory
within three hours. On arriving at the turning which
leads to the Brenner, we took the left instead of the
right and drove on toward Italy and Switzerland.
I did not wish to linger in Italian territory, for every-
one expected Italy to join in the war. We stopped
at the first Swiss village, Le Prese. We were saved.

On my arrival I drafted the following memorandum,
intending to send it to Gocring at the first oppor-
tunity :

Memorandum

1. On August 31st I sent the following urgent telegram
to Marshal Goering at 9 p.m. \lhe telegram is quoted

^ 37 -]

2. In the Reichstag meeting of September ist, Hitler
said : “ He who is not for me is a traitor and will be
treated as such/"

I PAID HITLER

3. I regard this remark not only as a threat but also
as an encroachment upon the rights of a member of the
Reichstag to which I am entitled under our Constitution.

4. I have not only the right to express my opinion, but
it is my duty to do so when I am convinced that Germany
is being ruthlessly plunged into great danger. Hitler
has no right to threaten me when I express my opinion.

5. Now, as before, I am against war. Since war has
now broken out, Germany should do her best to bring it to
an end as soon as possible, for the longer it lasts the harder
the peace terms for Germany.

6. The pact with Germany was not broken by Poland —
that pact which Hitler himself has repeatedly described as
a guarantee of peace. [Concerning this, reference should he
made to Hitler^ s speech of September 2 &th, 1938.]

7. In order to have peace it will be necessary for Ger-
many to respect her Constitution in every way. Non-
observance of the Constitution amounts, after, all, to
anarchy. The allegiance sworn by the individual citizen
is valid only if the leaders also act in accordance with
their obligations.

8. One hundred members were absent at the Reichstag
meeting on September ist. The seats of the absentees
were occupied by officials of the Nazi party. This I
consider as grossly unconstitutional, and I protest.

9. I demand that the German public be informed of
the fact that I, as a member of the Reichstag, voted
against war. If other members acted similarly, the public
should also be informed of it.

10. On August 31st, shortly before sending the above-
mentioned telegram to Field Marshal Goering, I was
advised by telegram that a certain Herr von Remnitz had
died suddenly in Dachau. Herr von Remnitz is the son
in-law of my sister. Baroness Berg, who lives in Munich.
He was interned immediately after the Anschluss,
apparently because he had taken part in the activity of
Legitimists before the Anschluss. Immediately after his

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

arrest I approached Gauleiter Biirckel in Vienna, but re-
ceived no kind of ans\yer. This is characteristic of present
German conditions. I demand information as to whether
Herr von Remnitz died a natural death or not. In the
latter case, I reserve my right to take further steps.

I intended to despatch the memorandum by mes-
senger in order to be sure that it really reached Marshal
Goering. The opportunity to do so did not arise
until twenty days later, when one of my employees
arrived in Le Prese to see me on business. I com-
pleted my memorandum and entrusted it to him,
asking him to take it to Berlin and to hand it to Marshal
Goering in person. But he did not dare to undertake
this. All he consented to do was to carry a sealed
letter for Herr Terboven, Gauleiter of Essen. The
latter was then to forward it to Marshal Goering.

The following week, on September 26th, Dr. Albert
Vogler, vice-chairman of the board of the United
Steel Works, of which I was the chairman, came to
see me in Zurich. The news of my departure had
spread in Germany. The French broadcasting services
were the first to announce it, about September 12th.
Goebbels issued a denial : What is more natural,’’
he said to his questioners, “ than that an industrialist
who has suffered from the intense overwork of the
past few years should take a few weeks’ leave ? ”
For a long time official quarters in Berlin attempted to
conceal the fact of my departure and the reasons
which had led to it.

Dr. Vogler came to me for information, for no one
at DUsseldorf and in the industrial region as a whole
knew exactly what to think. At the same time he
conveyed to me a curious verbal message from Ter-
boven, The Essen Gauleiter, who had received my

I PAID HITLER

letter, said that he had been unable to take it upon
himself to forward my memorandum to the marshal,
since he considered its language too violent. At the
same time he assured me in writing that Goering had
never received my telegram of August 31st and that
the Fiihrer, therefore, could not have intended the
phrase in which he threatened a traitor’s punishment
to all who were not of his opinion to apply to me.

Terboven added that Marshal Goering guaranteed
that, if I came back to Germany immediately, I should
suffer no personal or economic consequences. But I
was instructed to bring with me to Germany all the
authentic copies of the above memorandum of Sep-
tember 20th. These would then be destroyed with
the original.

Thus I was offered an opportunity of making a
political recantation, in exchange for which I would
be given in Germany the personal immunity which I
already enjoyed abroad and which should in any
case have been guaranteed to me at home, by virtue
of my p)osition as member of the Reichstag. I had
further been given to understand that material penalties
would be applied if I did not return.

This was a curious communication. On the one
hand, Terboven assured me that Goering had received
neither letter nor telegram. On the other hand, he
transmitted the marshal’s reply to a memorandum of
which he was presumed to have no cognisance.

Vbgler adduced all sorts of arguments of a personal
character. Our conversation lasted three hours. I
spoke of my nephew’s death at Dachau. “ After that,”
I said, “ you will realise that I am in no huny to
return. First, let them publish my memorandum and
furnish the explanations requested in respect of Herr

MY ESCAPE FROM GERMANY

von Remnitz. Further, if desired, I will prepare a
second letter to Goering, stating my point of view.
Ask what they think of this in Berlin.’’ Vogler tele-
phoned and informed me that they did not wish to
receive another letter from me. I wrote all the same.
This letter will be reproduced later on.*

For a moment I thought of suggesting that the
Nazi leaders should get into touch with France and
England with a view to peace negotiations. My
radical opposition to the war might have justified
me in taking the part of an intermediary. I gave
up the idea, however, fearing to be duped by the
Nazis. I told Vogler, therefore, that my return to
Germany would depend upon the publication of my
memorandum. Also, I asked him to do what he
could to find out how my nephew had met his death.

Later I learned that at the end of September, after
the presentation of my memorandum to Goering, the
Gestapo had made a search of my house in Miihlheim,
Naturally they found nothing (except, perhaps, letters
from Goering assuring me of his eternal gratitude and
friendship). It is common knowledge in Germany
that it is unhealthy to keep too many papers. Mean-
while, one fine day, a German arrived in Zurich in a
particularly agitated state of mind. ‘‘The Gestapo
hint that they have found in your house papers com-
promising other industrialists,” he said when he saw
me. “ Tell me, I beg of you, if this is true ! ” I
reassured him, saying that it could not be true and
that, knowing what might happen, I had taken every
precaution. ^The poor fellow seemed relieved. He
shall remain anonymous, for he has returned to
Germany.

♦ See page 45.

CHAPTER TWO

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

V OGLER left for Berlin. I heard no more of him,
although he had promised to inform me of the
results of his inquiries into the mysterious death of
my nephew in the notorious Dachau camp. Before
his departure he had entreated me to return to
Germany, and my reply was that I would refurn if
the German government published the memorandum
I had addressed to Marshal Goering on September 20th.
No reply ever reached me, and I am still awaiting the
publication of my memorandum in Germany. . . .

Vogler was not the only person to put pressure on
me. .After the declaration of war several people, who
took no trouble to conceal their lack of enthusiasm
for the regime, came to see me in Switzerland. They
said, “ Now that war is declared, everyone must rally
behind Hitler, for he represents Germany.” To all
such attempts to make me reverse my decision I
replied, “ No ; for this man will plunge the German
people into disaster. My resolution is unshakable.”

The Nazi leaders expected me to commit an act
of cowardice ; to renounce my conviction as a free
man. But 1 refused to rettim to Germany. I refused

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

to forswear my political convictions. What, after all,
was Gocring’s word and his “ guarantee ’’ of my
security worth? Goering, all-powerful as he is, was
unable to protect one of his own prefects against a
mere Nazi Gauleiter. He abandoned to the miserable
vengeance of Himmler and of the Gestapo the German
pastor, Martin Niemoller, after he had been acquitted
in a court of law. Goering did this although his own
sister, Frau Rigle, was one of Niemoller’s followers,
and after he had protected him as long as he thought
he could. For years Niemoller, commander of a sub-
marine in the last war, has languished in secret
confinement in the concentration can^p of Oranienburg.

I shall therefore make no concession contrary to
my conscience. As long as Hitler and his men are
in power, my foot shall not pass the threshold of
Germany. This is what I intended to tell Goering
in reply to his invitation and to his questionable
guarantees. Immediately after Vogler’s departure I
drafted this letter — the communication which, as I
have said, the authorities did not wish to receive.

“ Zurich, October ist, 1939.

“ Dear Sir,

“ I refer to my letter to you of September 22nd, 1939,^
together with enclosure, both sent by messenger to
Gauleiter Terboven to be forwarded. I hereupon re-
ceived the following statement from the Gauleiter :

‘ I declare on behalf of Field Marshal Goering that
neither a letter nor a telegram has been received by
him personally, nor has any such document been re-
ceived by his office. This is sufficient to prove that the
final sentence of the Fiihrcr’s speech can in no way be

^ Author* X Note : Tliis letter to, Goering was the covering letter
to the m^orandum of September 20th, 1939*

I PAID HTTLEIt

intended to refer to any special person. If the writer
returns at once, the Marshal guarantees that no personal
or economic consequences will ensue.’

My observations regarding this statement are as
follows :

I. It is quite impossible that my urgent telegram of
August 31st from Bad Gastein should not have arrived.
It is to be hoped that a telegram addressed to Marshal
Goering is always delivered in Germany. Furthermore,
my letter must have reached its destination, otherwise the
Gauletier could not have sent the answer as above given.

“ 2. It may be that my telegram did not arrive in time,
despite the fact that it was sent the moment I was invited
to hold myself in readiness for a meeting of the Reichstag.
Though it may be possible that this telegram did not
influence Chancellor Hitler’s speech, the circumstances
were, nevertheless, such as to convince me that this was
the case, since I believe that I alone, of all the members,
had dared to express a dissenting opinion.

“ 3. I never requested you to protect me from the
personal or economic consequences of my political action.
I do not see how you arrived at this conclusion.

‘‘ It is true that since 1923 I have supported the party,
first at the request of General Ludendorff, and that since
then I have invariably carried out the wishes expressed by
yourself, Hitler, Hess, and others. But I have never on
any occasion negotiated either with you or with the others
concerning my own decisions in the economic field. On
three occasions only — ^unfortunately too few — have I
reproached you, as follows :

“ First, when President Weitzel, of the Dflsseldorf police,
whom you promoted to a state councillorship, disseminated
an indecent and scandalous pamphlet against the Catholic
Church, the Church to which I shall now more faithfully
than ever adhere. The steps I then took were in vain.

** Secondly, when on November 9th, 1938, the Jews

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

were despoiled and martyrised in the most cowardly and
brutal fashion, when the first magistrate of Dtisseldorf,
whom you had yourself appointed, was nearly murdered
and driven away.

“ My reproaches were in vain. I then resigned, in pro-
test, my post as councillor of state. I requested the
Prussian finance minister to stop paying the salary attached
to this office. This had no effect. The payments have
continued, but they have been deposited in a special
account at the Thyssen Bank and are available.

“ Now for the third time, when the worst has come to
the worst, and Germany is once more plunged into war,
without any kind of reference to the parliament or the
state council, I inform you quite definitely I am opposed
to this policy, and shall maintain this opinion even though
I am accused of being a traitor. This accusation — re-
membering that in 1923 I, an unarmed man, not pro-
tected by ninety billion marks’ worth of armaments,
organised the passive resistance in the regions occupied by
the enemy, and thus saved the Rhine and the Ruhr — is
almost as grotesque as the fact that National Socialism has
suddenly discarded its doctrines in order to hobnob with
Communism.

“ Even from the standpoint of practical politics this
policy amounts to suicide, for the sole person to benefit
from it is the Nazis’ mortal enemy of yesterday, trans-
formed into the friend of to-day — Russia, the country of
which the Fiihrer’s most intimate adviser, Keppler, speak-
ing at a board meeting of the Reichsbank a few months
ago, said, ‘ It must be Germanised as far as the Ural
Mountains.’

“ All I can do now is to appeal most urgently to you and
to the Ftihrcr to stop pursuing a policy which, if successful,
will cast Germany into the arms of Communism ; and, if *
unsuccessful, will mean the end of Germany. Try to
discover how the catastrophe can still be avoided.

“ At all events, Germany will have to reinstate consti-

I PAID HITLER

tutional conditions, so that treaties and agreements, law
and order, may once again have a meaning.

“ In conclusion, I wish to express my regret that, in
order to speak frankly to you, I have to write from abroad.
But you will see that for me it would be deliberate stupidity
to act otherwise in view of the fate meted out to political
adversaries, as, for instance, in 1934. That these methods
have not changed is unfortunately demonstrated by the
case of Remnitz, who, as stated in the enclosure of my
letter of September 22nd, died in Dachau, without anyone
being notified of the cause of his death. What is new to
me is that Herr von Ribbentrop did not hesitate to annex
the property of the dead man.

“ With my regards, I remain,

(Signed) “Fritz Thyssen**

“ Member of the Reichstag.’*

This letter was posted at Heidelberg and registered
in my name by one of my acquaintances. ,

This was the final rupture. Henceforth, as I frankly
informed Goering, I would be the political adversary
of that National Socialist regime which I had sup-
ported in its efforts to seize the power in Germany.
I shall remain abroad in order to retain my freedom
of opinion and my liberty of action.

Goering never acknowledged the receipt of my
letter. But this time I had reason to know that he
received it, for on October 13th, 1939, the Gestapo
distrained on the whole of my property in Germany.
This was, most certainly, his reply. Mr. Reinhardt,
manager of the Commercial and Private Bank, and
head of the Association of German Private Banks
within the Nazi organisation, despatched to all German
banks a secret circular, the text of which was com-
municated to me. It read :

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

“ In virtue of a letter addressed to me by the secret
police of the state from its headquarters in Berlin, on
October 13th, I draw the attention of all our members to
the following order issued by the state police of Dusseldorf.

“ In execution of an order issued by Marshal Goering
to the Commissioner for National Defence of the Fourth
Military District, Gauleiter and Senior President Terboven,
the entire fortune of Dr. juris h.c. Fritz Thyssen, MUhl-
heim-Ruhr, Speldorf, is placed under state control pur-
suant to Paragraph i of the decree of February 28th,
1933, and Paragraph i of the law concerning the secret
police. The sole person authorised to dispose of these
goods is the mandatory accredited to Marshal Goering, to
wit, the Commissioner for National Defence, Gauleiter and
Senior President Terboven.

“ Since it has been impossible to form an exact estimate
of the property of Herr Thyssen and his wife, I request
you to instruct all banks by confidential circular to com-
municate, within five days following the receipt of this
letter, information as to all accounts, deposits, and safe
deposit boxes held in the name of Fritz Thyssen and of
his wife, born Amalie zur Helle on December 9th, 1877,
at MUhlheim-Ruhr. This communication to be addressed
to the headquarters of the state police at Dusseldorf, in-
scribed with the name of Senior Councillor Dr. Hassel-
bacher or of his deputy.

“ Heil Hitler !

“ Chief of the Economic Association
of the German Private Banks :
(signed) “ Reinhardt.**

Gauleiter Terboven then appointed as trustee the
Nazi banker Kurt von Schroder of the Stein Bank at
Cologne. Schroder accepted.

The text of this order of distraint is not quite clear
in its legal phraseology. It may further be questioned
why this measure was extended to the property of

I PAID HTIXER

my vydfc, who had committed no crime of Use tnajesU
against the regime. The order, in fact, is based upon
a law conferring upon the Gestapo powers which are
unlimited and arbitrary. No court in Germany is
competent to entertain an appeal against a measure
taken by the sinister Gestapo, even when it affects
personal liberty.

In reality, this distraint, commonly a preliminary
to confiscation, was intended to bring pressure to
bear on me. The Nazi authorities wanted to wait
before taking irrevocable steps. I might perhaps
prove more manageable. I did not stir.

Two months later, on December 14th, 1939, the
German Official Gazette (Reicksanzeiger) published a
notice to the effect that my fortune had been con-
fiscated by the state of Prussia. This measure was
based upon the law of May 26th, 1933, prescribing
confiscation of the property of the Communist party ! This
was the limit of effrontery.

The notice, signed by the Regierungsprasident of
Diisscldorf (chief of the provincial government), was
final, not subject to legal appeal. The press received
formal instructions not to mention it. The foreign
journalists in Berlin, who nevertheless gave some
attention to my affair, let this sensation pass.

In all this business one detail was astonishing. The
confiscation had been executed by the state of Prussia,
not by the government of the Reich. Yet, as a piatter
of fact, the property consisted mainly of shares in
important industrial enterprises, smelting and steel
works, which were of the greatest importance for
national defence. Normally, if confiscated, they
should have been acquired by the Reich. But this
would have been coimting without Goering. Goering,

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

besides being president of the Reichstag, is priine
minister of the state of Prussia ! Now Goering had
often been my guest in my house at Speldorf-Muhl-
heim.^ On these occasions the marshal had admired
a small but fairly valuable collection of paintings and
engravings, some of which were presents I had made
to my wife since our marriage, forty years ago. Goering
is like a child ; he wants everything he sees. By
having my property confiscated in the name of the
Prussian state, he made sure that these paintings,
engravings of the eighteenth century, and other objects
of art, would not escape his grasp. For Goering is
virtual sovereign of Prussia. All that is Prussian
property is his. He has proved this on various
occasions. This time he was not content with unhook-
ing the paintings from the walls of my Miihlheimhome
and carrying them off. He also made an expedition
to my son-in-law’s place at Straubing, in Bavaria.
There he possessed himself of the pictures which
belonged to my daughter and her husband. And
this notwithstanding the fact that the latter is a
Hungarian subject.

These little stories may seem somewhat ridiculous.
Nevertheless they are very significant from the
economic point of view. For my financial interest in
the greatest metallurgical concern in Germany, the
United Steel Works, instead of being transferred to
the Reich, has been seized by Prussia. Goering may
have certain ideas in this connection. Indeed, a large
share ownership in these steel works might save the

^ Author's Note : In searching my residence, the Gestapo must
have found numerous letters from Goering assuring me of his
eternal gratitude and friendship. 1 am certain diat Heinrich Himmler^
as head of the Gestapo, has carefully filed these letters under the
name Gj^ering, a dossier which he keep<s strictly up to datei

5 ^^

X PAID HITLER

Hermann Gocring Works from bankruptcy. I shall
have more to say about this metallurgical enterprise
later on.

The foregoing notice was published in the Official
Gazjftte on December 14th. I was not informed of it
until about Christmas. I immediately decided to write
direct to Hitler as German Chief of State, to protest
against this further illegal act and to explain to him
personally the reasons for my conduct and what I
thought of his policy. The text of my letter was as
follows :

Lucerne, December 28th, 1939.
Sm,

“ I have just read in the Official Gazette, No. 293,
December 14th, 1939, the following notice : —

‘ In execution of the law of May 26th, 1933, con-
cerning the confiscation of Communist property (sic)
{Reich Statutes Bulletin, No, i, page 293) and in x^onnfcc-
tion with Paragraph i of the Decree of May 31st, 1933
(Law No. 39) and with the Law of July 14th, 1933,
concerning the Confiication of Property of Enemies of
the People and the State {Reich Statutes Bulletin, No. i,
page 479) the entire movable property of Dr. Fritz
Thy^n, formerly resident at Mtihlhcim-Ruhr, now
abroad, together with his estate is confiscated by the
state of Prussia, and that with the publication of this
decree in the German Official Gazette and in the
Prussian State Gazette, the said property enters into
the possession of the state of Prussia. No legal remedy
is provided against the effects of this decree.

* DUsscldorf, December nth, 19391

* REGIERUNOSPRAsmENT ReEDER.*

No reason is given for this measure. I note that
neither legal nor administrative proceedings of any kind
have been initiated against me. To this very day I have

I PAID HITLER

vice-chancellor — Herr von Papen, who sponsored Hinden*
burg’s appointment of yourself as chancellor. Before him
you took a solemn oath in the Garrison Church at Potsdam
to respect the Constitution. Do not forget that you
owe your rise not to a great revolutionary uprising but to
the liberal order which you have sworn to sustain.

‘‘ A sinister development followed these events. The
persecution of the Christian religion, taking the form of
cruel measures against the priests and insults to the
Churches, led me to protest in the early days, for instance
when the police president of Diisseldorf issued a protest to
Marshal Goering. It was in vain.

“ When, on November gth, 1938, the Jews were despoiled
and martyrised in the most cowardly and brutal manner,
and their temples razed to the ground throughout Ger-
many, I also protested. To reinforce this protest, I
resigned my office as state councillor. This, too, was in
vain.

Now you have compounded with Communism. Your
propaganda ministry even dares to proclaim that the
honest Germans, who voted for you as the opponent of
Communism, are in essentials identical with the bloody
revolutionaries who plunged Russia into misery and whom
you yourself denounced (p. 750, Mein Kampf) as ‘ vulgar
blood-stained criminals.’

** When the great catastrophe* became an accomplished
fact, and Germany was again involved in a war, without
seeking the assent of parliament or the council, I em-
phatically declared that I was firmly opposed to this
policy.

“ As a member of the Reichstag, it is my duty to state
my opinion and to abide by it. It is a crime against the
German people if its men and in particular its representa-
tives, who arc held responsible by other countries, are no
longer allowed to express their views. I cannot bow to
this yoke. I refuse to lend my name to your acts, not-
withstanding your declaration in the Reichstag mectihg of

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

September ist, 1939 : ‘ He who is not with me is a traitor
and shall be treated as such.’

“ I denounce the policy of the last few years ; I denounce
above all the war into which you have frivolously thrust
the German people, and for which you and your advisers
must bear the* responsibility. My past shields me from the
accusation of treachery. In 1923 I, an unarmed man,
organised the passive resistance in the occupied territories,
at great danger to myself, and thus saved the Rhine and
the Ruhr. I appeared before the enemy’s court-martial
and fearlessly proclaimed my opinion as a German. But
it is precisely this conviction which makes it impossible for
me to renounce the real ideals and the original doctrine of
National Socialism which, as you yourself explained in
my house, are in essentials identical with the principles of
German monarchy and designed to lead to social appease-
ment and a stable order, I allow myself to recall that you
instructed me to continue the Institut fur Standewesen in
Diisseldorf in this sense. A year later, it is true, you left
me very much to my own devices ; and you approved the
internment of the director of the institute, appointed by
me in agreement with Herr Hess, in the ill-famed con-
centration camp of Dachau. In Dachau, my chancellor,
where my nephew came to a sudden death. His Schloss
Fuschl, near Salzburg, was thrown as a sop to Herr von
Ribbentrop, who was shameless enough to receive in it the
foreign minister of Italy and envoy of Mussolini.

“ I further remind you that Goering was certainly not
sent to Rome to see the Holy Father and to Doom to inter-
view the former Kaiser, in order to prepare them for the
forthcoming alliance with Communism. And yet you have
suddenly concluded such an alliance with Russia, an act
which no one has denounced more strongly than yourself
in your book Mein Kampf (earlier edition, pp. 740-750).
There you say : ‘ The very fact of an agreement with
Russia contains the premises of the next war. Its end
would be the end of Germany,’ Or again : ‘ The present

I PAID HITLER

leaders of Russia have no intention of concluding a pact on
an honest basis, or of keeping to it/ Or again : ‘ One
concludes no treaty with a partner whose sole interest lies
in the destruction of the other/

Your new policy is suicide. Who will benefit by it ?
If the courageous Finns, with their faith in God, do not
bring this enterprise to naught, the former mortal enemy
of the Nazis and their present * friend * Bolshevik Russia,
certainly will — the same Russia, of which your closest
adviser, Herr Keppler, secretary of state in the ministry
for foreign affairs and a skilled diplomat, declared in May,
I939> a board meeting of the Reichstag that it must be
Germanised lo the Ural Mountains. I earnestly hope that
these frankly spoken words of your confidential adviser
will not weaken the effect of the telegram of congratula-
tions which you addressed to your friend Stalin on his
birthday.

‘‘ Your new policy, Herr Hitler, is pushing Germany
into the abyss and the German people into ruin. ^Reverse
the machine while there is still time ! Your policy means
at long last, ‘Fimj Germaniae.* Remember your oath at
Potsdam. Give the Reich a free parliament, give the
German people freedom of conscience, thought, and speech.
Provide the necessary guarantees for the reinstatement of
law and order, so that treaties and agreements can once
again be made in faith and confidence. For if further evil
and further useless bloodshed are averted, it may then be
possible to achieve for Germany an honourable peace
and the maintenance of her unity.

International public (pinion urges me to explain why
I have left Germany. So far I have been silent. All the
documents and written evidence of my fifteen years of
combat are still unrcvcaled. At a time when my Father-
land is fighting a hard battle I do not wish to presertt its
enemies with further moral weapons. I am a German
and remain so with every fibre of my being. I am proud
of my nationality and will be so to my last breath. ^Just

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

because I am a German I cannot and will not speak during
the sore distress of my people as one day it may be neces-
sary in the interest of the truth. But I feel in me that
stifled voice of the German people which calls : ‘ Turn
back and restore freedom, law and humanity in the
German Reich.’

“ I shall await your acts in silence. But I start with the
assumption that this letter shall not be withheld from the
German people. I shall wait. If my words, the words of
a free and sincere German, are concealed from the people,

I propose to appeal to the conscience and the judgment of
the rest of the world. I wait.

“ Heil Deutschland !

(Signed) “ Fritz Thyssen.”

“ P.S. — I am handing this letter to the German embassy
in Berne to be forwarded, and I have further sent a regis-
tered copy to the Chancellery in Berlin and to your
personal address in Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. I
am compelled to take these measures since I am officially
advised that my letters and telegrams to Field Marshal
Goering never arrived.

“ Copies were also sent to Field Marshal Goering and
Regierungsprasident Reeder in Diisseldorf, who ordered
the confiscation of my property. Copy of the first para-
graph of this letter was also sent to Baron Kurt von Schroder
of Cologne, presumably the present adminbtrator of my
property.”

This letter to Hitler meant not merely a rupture.
It meant that I would no longer confine myself to
theoretical opposition to the Nazi leaders. I intended
to declare war upon them. I hope that my attitude
may not be misinterpreted. As a member of the
Reichstag it was my right and my duty to protest
against war if it was my conviction that the war was
wrong. I would, however, have bowed to a valid

I PAID HITLER

decision of the legislature, if such a decision had been
taken. I would have admitted that in a war it is
the common duty of a citizen to support a government
which is truly representative of the will of the nation.
I would also have avoided a rupture, or active
opposition, if the government had published my
memorandum to Goering, as I requested in my message
sent through Vogler. But I never even received a
reply to this request. Berlin continued to conceal
the fact that the bellicose policy of the National
Socialist government had aroused the formal opposi-
tion of at least one German patriot.

I have taken note of this silence and I have decided
to act. For some time the international public has
been interested in the reasons for my departure from
Germany. I am constantly etsked why I have broken
with National Socialism. So long as I enjoyed the
right of refuge on Swiss territory, I held my peace.
The Swiss federal authorities granted me permission
to remain in their country until March 31st, 1940*
But this authorisation implied for me the obligation
to abstain from any kind of political activity while
residing in Svsdtzerland.

Some time after the despatch of my letter to Hidcr
I learned that the government of the Reich had issued
a warrant for my arrest on a charge of embezzlement,
or something of the kind. This was a clumsy device
to obtain my extradition and to get me handed over
to the German authorities. The Swiss government,
informed of the reasons for my departure, refused even
to consider the request. I take this opportunity of
once more conveying to the Swiss government my
admiration and gratitude.

Faced by the failure of its attempts to attach my

FINAL RUPTURE WITH HITLER

person, the government of the Reich decided, as a
last resource, to deprive me of my German nationality.
On February 4th, 1940, the German Official Gazette
published a decision of the minister of the interior
withdrawing the rights of German citizenship from me
and my wife. Thus I was first pursued as a criminal
and, when this failed, the government saw fit to pro-
claim that I was no longer a German. This incoherent
procedure is as symptomatic of the Nazis’ embarrass-
ment as is the silence which continues to prevail in
Germany in respect of the whole affair.

I deny that there is any kind of justification for this
last act, as I have already done in the case of the
others. I merely exercised the rights conferred upon
me as a member of the Reichstag. I based — and still
base — my actions on a parliamentary mandate for
which I am responsible to the German people alone.
As for the withdrawal of German nationality from
my wife, who has never joined in any political demon-
stration against the regime, I can only explain it by
the sordid motives to which I have already referred.

On receiving information of the measures taken
against me by the minister of the interior, I despatched
to him the following letter of protest :

“ Locarno, February i6th, 1940.

“ Sir,

“ I sec from the papers that you have officially
declared that my wife and myself have forfeited all
right to our German nationality.

“ I herewith protest in due form. I have done my
duty as a member of the Reichstag in opposing the
present policy of the government of the Reich. I have
left Germany because the immunity assured to members
by the Constitution seemed to me no longer guaranteed.

1 PAID HITLER

Neither the confiscation of my property, nor a warrant
of arrest, nor the loss of my nationality will prevent me
from doing my du{y as a member of the Reichstag, an
office in which I feel myself responsible to the German
people.

(Signed) “ Fritz Thyssen,”

“ Member of the Reichstag.”

Several months have elapsed since my first protest,
and since my request to the German leaders to
communicate it to the nation. I now accuse the
German chancellor of disloyalty and of violating his
solemn oath ; I summon him to restore Constitution,
law, and justice in Germany ; and I appeal to world
public opinion by laying before it the documents in
the case.

CHAPTER III

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

‘ ' I ^HE republic we had under the Empire was a

A delight.” This was a common saying in
France when the Empire of Napoleon III had been
upplanted by the Third Republic — after 1871. How
nany National Socialists in Germany and Austria
o-day may have similar, melancholy reflections !
’or “ National Socialism ” under Briining and
ichuschnigg was indeed a delight.

This has in fact been my own feeling for some years.
Jut my rupture with the regime is not merely the
csult of this disillusionment. Things were brought to
k head by the war, for which Hitler is resp)onsible.
t is often said that an industrialist, particularly an
ron master, is always in favour of war, since it is
opposed to be remunerative to heavy industry. My
iwn attitude may perhaps serve as a defence against
ccusadons of this sort.

To-day I have broken with a long past, and a certain
ine of conduct. This line of conduct was at all times,
nd especially after the defeat of 1918, actuated by
he ardent desire to promote the greatness and the
•rosperity of an empire into which I was bom two

« 61

I PAID HITLER

Neither the confiscation of my property, nor a warrant
of arrest, nor the loss of my nationality will prevent me
from doing my dujy as a member of the Reichstag, an
office in which I feel myself responsible to the German
people.

(Signed) “ Fritz Thyssen,”

“ Member of the Reichstag.”

CHAPTER III

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

“ '^HE republic we had under the Empire was a

A delight.” This was a common saying in
France when the Empire of Napoleon III had been
supplanted by the Third Republic — after 1871. How
many National Socialists in Germany and Austria
to-day may have similar, melancholy reflections !
For “ National Socialism ” under Briining and
Schuschnigg was indeed a delight.

This has in fact been my own feeling for some years.
But my rupture with the regime is not merely the
result of this disillusionment. Things were brought to
a head by the war, for which Hitler is responsible.
It is often said that an industrialist, particularly an
iron master, is always in favour of war, since it is
supposed to be remunerative to heavy industry. My
own attitude may perhaps serve as a defence against
accusations of this sort.

To-day I have broken with a long past, and a certain
line of conduct. This line of conduct was at all times,
and especially after the defeat of 1918, actuated by
the ardent desire to promote the greatness and the
prosperity of an empire into which I was bom two

I PAID HITLER

years after its foundation, and for which I have worked
throughout my life.

I am not a politician, but an industrialist, and an
industrialist is always inclined to consider politics a
kind of second string to his bow — the preparation for
his own particular activity. In a well-ordered country,
where the administration is sound, where taxes are
reasonable, and the police well organised, he can
afford to abstain from politics and to devote himself
entirely to business. But in a crisis-ridden state, as
Germany was from 1918 to 1933, an industrialist is
drawn, willy-nilly, into the vortex of politics. After
1930 the «tspirations of German industry may be
summed up in one phrase : ‘‘ a sound economy in a
strong state.” This was, I remember, the slogan of
a meeting of the Ruhr industrialists in 1931. It was
at the height of the economic and social crisis. During
that winter there were six or seven milfion un-
employed, that is, about one-third of the entire
German labouring population. The Weimar Republic
was torn asunder by party and other strife, and the
ship of state was at the point of foundering. The
government was incapable of assuring a proper
administration, or just plain everyday order. Even
the police were unable to cope with the daily riots and
the political disturbances in the streets.

I, too, approved this slogan, 'to surmount the
crisis it was necessary to reinforce the authority of the
state. That is why I was in favour of the restoration
of the monarchy, for the German people had clearly
shown that it was not fitted for a republic. But I
also believed that by backing. Hitler and his party
I could contribute to the reinstatement of real govern-
ment and of orderly conditions, which would enable

THE END OF A FOUtTICAL ERROR 63

all branches of activity — and especially business — to
function normally once again.

But it is no use crying over spilled milk. The strong
state of which I then dreamed had nothing in common
with the totalitarian state or, rather, caricature of a
state, erected by Hitler and his minions. Not fon an
instant did I imagine that it was possible, one hundred
and fifty years after the French Revolution and the pro-
clamation of the Rights of Man, to substitute arbitrary
action for law in a great modern country, to strangle
the most elementary rights of the citizen, to establish an
Asiatic tyranny in the heart of Europe, and to foster an-
achronistic aspirations of conquest and world dominion.

As a Catholic, born on the shores of that mighty
Rhine where the influences of Western culture and
Roman law had always been stronger than in other
parts of Germany, where Christianity had been
implanted very early, and where the French
Revolution had left its indelible trace, I found it
impossible to believe that in our time we could destroy
,all the normal conditions of human and political life.
In 1930 I should have been astonished if anyone had
called me a liberal. But this was in all probability my
real conviction, although I did not realise i^. My
desire to re-establish order in the state and to restore
authority and discipline was in complete accordance
with the dignity of the individual with respect for the
fundamental liberties. Indeed, the exercising of these
liberties seemed to me as natural as breathing.

Germany after 1918 was over-industrialised. This
was the logical consequence of a development which
had taken place since 1870 and of which my father
was one of the pioneers. The whole character of the
country had been profoundly modified. The problems

I PAID HITIJSR

raised by the existence of an industry which has to
feed two-thirds of the population is not always fully
understood in countries like France or the United
States. Before the war of 1914, the monarchy of
Prussia and the German Empire, though absolute in
the political and administrative domains, had been quite
liberal in the social and economic fields. Notwithstand-
ing certain mistakes, the political personnel of the im-
perial regime and, in particular, its very efficient civil
servants, had almost always been equal to their tasks.

Of this system the very foundations had been
destroyed by the national defeat and the revolution
of 1918. Germany, exhausted by the war, demoralised
by defeat, starved by the blockade, had to make a
tremendous effort merely to assure the material
existence of her population. Instead of straining
every nerve to achieve recovery, it yielded tq a tide
of anarchy and radicalism which definitely precluded
any attempt at genuine reconstruction.

The internal crisis was aggravated by the pressure
exercised by the victors. It made itself felt not only
in the political field but also in business, which it
burdened with a formidable mortgage, namely the
war reparations. The political circles which had
governed the country for well-nigh a century, and
the competent and trusted officials who had officered
the staff of a sound and correct administration, had
almost all disappeared in the upheaval following the war.

Associated with my father at the head of a great
industrial enterprise I faced the terrible problem of
providing the working population with labour and
bread. This was no longer merely a question of
technical and economic organisation. It was in-
dispensable that Germany should once more be able

simile of the contract signed by Fritz Thyssen and Emery Re\es for

the publication of his memoirs.

THE END OF A POLITICAL EREOR 65

to export, to re-establish her credit, and to restore
order at home, so as to permit the resumption of work.

To cope with pressure from our late enemies, I
organised Germany’s passive resistance during the
occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. To combat political
radicalism and the anarchical tendencies which became
rife in the early years of the Weimar Republic, I
supported various semi-military patriotic formations,
among them the National Socialist party. Later,
after the initial crises, when developments appeared
to have resumed a more normal course, I turned my
attention to business. My subsequent political activity
was confined to membership in a parliamentary
opposition group, the German National party, headed
by Count Westarp and later by Alfred Hugenberg. The
German Nationals were conservative and monarchistic.

The modification of the reparations system in 1929,
consummated by Germany’s acceptance of the Young
Plan in the following year, appeared to me as a vital
economic error. At that moment I therefore resumed
a more active opposition. I attached myself to those
groups which offered resistance to the Reich’s policy
of far-fetched compliance. This seemed to me a
proper response to the situation at the moment, and
to clear the way for the establishment of sounder
economic conditions, first in Germany and then in
the world as a whole. I was not in close touch with
the daily party wrangles ; but, like many belonging
to the Right Wing, I was under the impression that
Hitler was an active factor in Germany’s recovery, and
this was why I gave him an ever-increasing support.

In January, 1933, the National Socialist party, to
which I had belonged for two years, came into office.
I thought, like everyone else, that it would ^succeed

I PAID HITLER

in re-establishing the political equilibrium and, at the
cost of a hard initial effort, in promoting the recovery
of the country. I even hoped that it would finally
lead to a restoration of the monarchy, a system which
conforms to the German people’s traditional respect
for authority. The monarchy, I thought, would have
guaranteed a more or less normal evolution and thus
would have averted a revolutionary crisis.

My disappointment dates almost from the very
beginning of the Nazi regime. Hitler’s eviction of
the conservative elements from the government, of
which he was the head, gave me some cause for
anxiety.. But I was inhibited by the impression pro-
duced by the burning of the Reichstag. To-day I
know tliat this crime was staged by the National
Socialists themselves, in order to gain more power.
Throughout Germany, they spread the fear of armed
Communist rebellion. They induced the belief that
this arson, organised by themselves, was the signal
for a second Red revolution which would have
precipitated the country into the bloody convulsions
of civil war. I then believed that by their energy
Hitler and Goering had saved the country. To-day
I know that I, like millions of others, was deceived.
But almost all Germans are still in the same state of
deception, if so be they inhabit the Reich. In order
to learn the truth I had to go abroad.

The burning of the Reichstag, organised by Hitler
and Goering, was the first step in a colossal political
swindle. With the argument of this alleged Communist
crime, the leaders of the Nazi party extorted from
President Hindenburg a so-called Law of Suspects/’
authorising summary execution and enabling the Nazis
to silence all political opponents.

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

The same law, for the protection of the people
and the state,” was adduced by the Gestapo as a
pretext for illegally confiscating my own property.
The so-called law suspended all the fundamental
constitutional guarantees of personal liberty, freedom
of conscience and of opinion. These guarantees arc
still in abeyance. Thus an emergency measure has
become a regular instrument of government.

One month later a trembling Reichstag, one hundred
of whose members had been arrested and imprisoned,
voted the law conferring full powers on the govern-
ment, which law lies at the root of all the arbitrary
acts committed by the regime since 1933^ Thus
began a series of revolutionary acts which theoretically
observ ed the forms of legality, but were in fact based
upon a crime and a lie. Public opinion in foreign
countries has never protested against these acts.

To-day, I can no longer hesitate : I say that all
the ‘‘ laws,” all the decrees enacted by the National
Socialist government, are illegal. In law, they are
null and void, since they are based upon a crime and
an abuse of confidence.

Hitler achieved power by engineering a political
combination. The National Socialist government
owes its being to no revolutionary event comparable
to Mussolini’s march on Rome. Hitler swore before
Field Marshal von Hindenburg a solemn oath to
respect a constitution which guaranteed the rights of
man and political freedom in Germany. The burn-
ing of the Reichstag is the criminal act by which he
peijured himself and usurped the power to rule.

To-day this is my conviction ; but for six years I
was deluded. Goering, an officer of the former
Imperial army, holder of the Order ‘‘ Pour Ic mirite,”

I PAID HITLER

showed me the smoking ruins of the Reichstag on
March ist : ‘‘ This/* he said, “ is a Communist

crime ; yesterday, I myself nearly arrested one of the
criminals.** Two months earlier he had telephoned
to my house to warn me that a rebellion was about
to break out in the Ruhr and that I headed the list
of the proposed hostages. He said that he had been
informed by his spies in the Communist party. How
could I have doubted his word ?

I therefore began to collaborate openly with the
regime. The rowdy anti-Semitism of the early period
produced no immediate practical consequences. I
considered this as a not particularly dangerous con-
cession to public feeling. In my native country, the
Rhine provinces, where the population is not anti-
Jewish, such stupidity had aroused ironical laughter
at the expense of the Nazis. Politically I was* absorbed
by the task which had been entrusted to me by the head
of the government to prepare plans for the economic
organisation of Germany on “ corporative ” lines.

The fateful day of June 30th, 1934, when Hitler
ordered the brutal murder of his revolutionary com-
panions, revolted and terrified me. There was some-
thing absolutely un-German in such a massacre. It
was sheer barbarity. Some months later I went to
South America for several months to attend to some
business. On my return I found the regime solidly
established. It had launched that policy of building
and rearmament which was to lead to Dr. Hjalmar
Schacht’s resignation as German minister pf economy
and as president of the Reichsbank. From that moment
I entered into open conflict with the National Socialists.

The first incident took place in 1935. An infamous
anti-Catholic tract had been disseminated at Diissel-

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

dorf. It reproduced the most ridiculous fables from
the outworn catalogue of the adversaries of the Church.
It attacked Christian morals and dogmas, the Pope,
the priests, and the religious orders. One of the leaflets
distributed at Diisseldorf was brought to me. To my
great astonishment it was signed by Weitzel, the chief
constable of Diisseldorf. He had signed his name
without stating his office. But this tract could only
have been distributed with his connivance and help.

The National Socialist government had signed with
the Catholic Church a concordat by which the latter
was to be protected against such attacks, especially
on the part of official persons. In a state where laws
are really enforced, the author of this scandalous docu-
ment would have been denounced and immediately
prosecuted. But in National Socialist Germany this
would have been superfluous, for no judge would have
dared to apply the law. I was a councillor of state. I
wrote to Gocring, drawing his attention to what I con-
sidered an intolerable example of disorder. Goering did
not reply, but some time later he told me that he had
ordered an inquiry. The question was not further pursued.

The persecution of the Catholics was merely a
beginning. From that date disorder, illegality, and
arbitrariness were the main weapons in the National
Socialist arsenal.

In September, 1935, I was summoned to Nurem-
berg to attend an extraordinary meeting of the Reich-
stag. Before the meeting I heard that the Reichstag,
at the request of Hiller and in agreement with the
commandcr-in-chief of the army. General von Blom-
berg, would have to vote a law replacing the former
black, white and red flag of the empire by the
swastika of National Socialism, I returned by train

I PAID HITLER

immediately, without waiting for the meeting. Hence
I did not vote the infamous laws enacted at Nuremberg,
which elevated anti-Semitism to the rank of a govern-
ment policy. Since then, even in the most solemn
circumstances, such as the marriage of my daughter,
which was attended by the Archbishop of Cologne
(I invited Goering, but he did not come), I have never
raised the swastika over my dwelling at Spcldorf,
even when we were ordered to hang out flags.

Some time later my wife met General von Blomberg
and voiced her surprise : “ How could you do a thing
like that ? ‘‘ Sad to relate,” Blomberg replied, “ the

army had to make that concession to the Fiihrer.” The
Nazis had, in fact, extorted the consent of the army,
alleging that rearmament might be compromised over
the flag issue. They had skilfully exploited the fact
that in many regions, and particularly the Rhine pro-
vinces, the population, in order to express its dissatis-
faction w’ith the regime, rarely flew the flag with the
swastika, but almost invariably the old black, white
and red. The Nazis had, more or less correctly, con-
strued this as political agitation against their party.

For four years I was the melancholy and powerless
witness of the incoherence, futility, and corruption
of the National Socialist leaders. Only on one more
occasion did I protest formally and in writing, and
that was at the time of the anti-Semitic excesses of
November, 1938. But neither Hitler nor Goering
were unaware of my feelings with regard to their
policy. I had expressed them publicly in the council
of state and in the economic meetings which I
attended. However, what use was opposition under
a dictatorship ? Even a general to whom I remarked
that this cannot go on ” shrugged his shoulders and

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

replied, “ What can you do ? An industrialist is
even more powerless than a general. He can be
arrested on any charge.

The important events of 1938 left me sceptical.
Next year the occupation of Prague and of Czecho-
slovakia, despite the solemn promises made to the
governments of three great countries, seemed to me
criminal and shameful. At the same time I regarded
it as a dangerous political mistake. Then came the
provocation of Poland. For five years Hitler had
constantly extolled the friendship between Germany
and Poland. His change of face with regard to the
Poles can, in my opinion, be explained by the irrita-
tion which he experienced when the Polish govern-
ment refused to join him in the great projected thrust
towards the cast — an operation which was expected
to give Germany the whole of European Russia, up
to the Ural Mountains. This plan was, in fact, re-
vealed just before the quarrel with Poland by the
Fiihrcr’s accredited confidant and economist, Wilhelm
Kepplcr, at a meeting of the board of directors of the
Reichsbank, which I attended.

I was already at Gastein when, on August 23rd,
^939> I informed of the conclusion of the pact
between Stalin and Hitler. I had attentively followed
the development of the international situation. I still
reckoned with the success of the National Socialist
move in the diplomatic game that was being played.
The further course of events gave me food for anxiety ;
yet I never imagined that Hitler would commit the
supreme folly of precipitating Germany into a Euro-
pean war. Some days before, I had received from
Albert V6gler a letter which had caused me to reflect
seriously. Vogler had met the director of a factory

I PAID HITLER

who had been one of a delegation of German in-
dustrialists just returned from Russia. At a farewell
dinner offered by some Russian commissar for industry,
the latter had raised his glass to the “friendship between
Russia and Germany.” I must confess that, on receiving
his letter, I wondered what was in the wind. The very
possibility of an agreement between Soviet Russia and
National Socialist Germany seemed beyond belief.

I had always warned industrialists, as well as
military circles, against a rapprochement with Com-
munist Russia. For me this regime was the enemy
of Germany and of Europe as a whole. To deal with
Russia seemed to me as great a crime as the treason
of the German Protestant princes who had allied them-
selves with Richelieu against the Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire in the Thirty Years’ War.

Hitler shared my aversion. At least, so I believed.
His book, Mein Kampf^ contains whole pages of im-
precations against the Russian regime. All of a
sudden, for reasons of political convenience, he aban-
doned his earlier convictions and concluded an alliance
with a country which he had on other occasions
described as Enemy' No. i of Europe. Such cavalier
tactics may have been regarded as excellent diplomacy
by Hitler and Ribbentrop ; to me they were appalling.
They meant a complete reversal of the traditional
home and foreign policy of Germany. The National
Socialist government had fought Bolshevism on the
inner and on the outer front. Anti-Communist pacts
had been concluded with Italy, Japan, Hungary, and
Spain. Hitler had preached the crusade against
Bolshevik Russia as the enemy of the human race.
And suddenly he had allied himself with the monster.

He had the insolence to ask serious-minded people

THE END OF A POLITICAL ERROR

to support him in this adventure. For my part, I should
never have been cowardly or imbecile enough to do so.

But the Germans — who as a race have never had
much political acumen — were completely confused by
the innumerable lien’s poured into their ears. They
thought that an alliance with Stalin was just like
any other alliance. Had not Bismarck himself concluded
an alliance with the Czar ? One of the most grotesque
features in the case is that certain Germans who actually
fear Bolshevism, instead of protesting against Hitler,
have accused me of encouraging the advent of Bolshev-
ism in Germany. They say it was my protest against
Hitler’s policy that led to the confiscation of my
private fortune. And this creates a dangerous prece-
dent. That is the point at which they have arrived !

On the Russian side, apart from the political interests
involved, I can explain the change of face by two
psychological arguments. Stalin, it is said, expressed
his admiration for Hitler after the events of June 30th,
1934. By murdering his political opponents. Hitler
had shown Moscow that he had the makings of a
real dictator. From that moment Stalin took Hitler
seriously. Further, the Russians had been extremely
impressed by the attitude of the Western Powers on
the occasion of the occupation of Czechoslovakia. In
1939 their sense of political realism showed them how
they could divert the Hitler menace from Russia and,
at the same time, to recoup their former frontiers.
The conclusion of the pact was Stalin’s master stroke.
By means of it he rid himself, for a certain time, of
the very real menace represented by a German army
— an army infinitely superior to the Red Army —
equipped and trained mainly for war in the East.
To me, in those days of August, 1939, the pact with

I PAID HITLER

Moscow seemed abominable from two points of view :
first, because it was an unnatural alliance with the
enemy of Western civilisation ; and secondly, because
it was an immediate preliminary to war.

As recounted above, I addressed a formal protest to
the National Socialist leaders on September ist. The
events which followed have justified this action. iThe
violation of the neutral countries, Denmark, Norway,
Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg has erased the Third
Reich from the roll of the civilised states. It is quite
possible that in the country itself the immense majority
of Germans, dazzled by one-day victories and duped
by lying propaganda, are unable to realise this fact.

Up to the eleventh hour I thought that it would be
possible to avoid war. I consoled myself by imagining
that the responsible generals would succeed in restrain-
ing Hitler. Before the blitzkrieg of 1940 on the Western
front I still hoped that it would be possible to prevent
the assault on the West. That is why I asked the Nazi
leaders to publish the memorandum in which I had
set forth the reasons for my opposition to the war.

But Hitler and his advisers turned a deaf car. They
think that they can’ force Fate to fight on their side.
The outrage which they have perpetrated on Europe
will fall back upon them and — unfortunately — on their
blind tool, the unseeing and unhearing German people.

For my own part I have drawn my conclusions
and I have acted accordingly. But I hope and
believe that the peace which will follow Hitler’s
downfall will be concluded in the light of the experi-
ence gained since 1918. This story of the political
error which led me to believe in Hitler, and of my
awakening, is my contribution to a better future.

PART TWO

THE ROAD TO THE THIRD REICH

CHAPTER ONE

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

Germany Threatened by Anarchy

I WAS an officer in the first World War. Until the
last day I shared the sufferings and tlie hopes
that animated all the soldiers at the front. I had
known for a long time that the civilian population
at home was tired of the gigantic effort it had put
forth. In our Rhenish-Wcstphalian industrial region,
where my father’s factories were located, the fires of
revolt had been smouldering for a long time. In
igiy-igiS there had been strikes, accompanied by
such grave disorders that a great many people had
to be arrested in the industrial cities of the Rhine.
These strikes were motivated by the lack of food and
the consequent sufferings of the workers’ families, but
political agitation aggravated their nature.

At Kiel the naval crews, under the influence of
Socialist propaganda, had refused obedience and made
an attempt at mutiny.* From igi8 onwards ex-
tremist agitation took on an even more revolutionary
character. The example set by the Russian Revolu-
• See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 87.

I PAID HITLER

tion, surreptitiously promoted by the German High
Command, had serious repercussions in Germany.
The Bolsheviks, who had seized power at Moscow
during the October revolution, sent their most
dangerous agents across the frontier. Incidents
occurred everywhere ; women and children demon-
strated against food shortage or in favour of peace.
At the front Ludendorff made a last attempt at forcing
a military decision. The success of the offensive of
1918 at first raised tlie morale of the German people.
Final defeat made it fall all the lower.

Neither the officers of the army nor even the great mass
of the soldiers were affected by defeatist and revolution-
ary propaganda. The army succumbed, exhausted by
its effort, tothecrushingsuperiorityoftheopposing forces.

In October, 1918, the revolution began to take shape.
The Socialists of the extreme Left had formed a group
named Spartacus,* after the Roman gladiator who
started the Third Servile War in 73 b.c. The Spartacus
group later on became the German Communist party
(K.P.D.) . Radical elements, inspired by the Russian ex-
ample, were preparing the formation of workers’ and
soldiers* councils, i.e. “ Soviets.” The storm was near.

It was at Kiel that the lightning struck first. The
mutiny in the Imperial Navy, early in November,
marked the beginning of the German Revolution. It
spread rapidly through all the cities of nortliern
Germany. In Cologne, Socialist parades were held
in the streets even before the armistice was signed.
The soldiers who returned from the front were dis-
armed as they arrived at the stations. Most of them
sympathised with the crowd. In the Rhenish cities
the moderate Socialist leaders at first succeeded in
• Sec Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 88.

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

preventing disorder. But the arrival of delegates of
the Kiel mutineers, accompanied by professional agi-
tators, carried the day. In the great industrial cities — in
Hamborn, Miihlheim and Essen — workers’ and soldiers’
soviets were formed and these quickly seized power.

The great Rhenish industrialist, Hugo Stinnes, in
order to avoid disorder and sabotage in the Rhenish-
Westphalian region, negotiated with the unions. He
secured promises which guaranteed order and social
peace in the region. But already a part of the workers,
influenced by revolutionary propaganda, had aban-
doned the leadership of the Social Democratic party.
The workers’ and soldiers’ councils opened the prison
gates and the political prisoners of the past two years
were freed. Along with them were set at large many
persons of doubtful past, who might be either sincere
revolutionaries or common-law criminals.

At Muhlheim we spent a painful five weeks. The
workers’ and soldiers’ councils which held the power
had signs posted everywhere to the effect that excesses
and looting were punishable. Yet the streets were
no longer safe. In the councils the moderate elements,
which at first held the majority, had yielded to radical
agitators.

In the evening of December 7, a group of men,
armed with rifles and pistols, presented themselves at
my door. They had come to arrest me. They also
took my father with them, despite his seventy-six
years. We were escorted to the prison of Miihlheim,
where four other industrialists soon arrived to join
us. In the middle of the night wc were awakened, and a
dozen rowdy-looking individuals carrying guns ordered
us into the courtyard. I thought they were going to
execute us. However, they simply took us to Berlin.

I PAID HITtER

Our guards led us into third-class carriages and sat
down near the doors, no doubt to prevent any attempt
at escape. It was cold. Fortunately, my father had
been able to take a blanket with him. The train
arrived at the Potsdam station in Berlin on the follow-
ing evening. On the platform a military detachment
awaited us. Our escort handed us over to them and
jeered as they left us. My father, who had left his
blanket in the train, addressed himself to one of the
guards and asked him, very politely, to go and fetch
it. “ What are you taking me for ? ” the other asked
indignantly, “ I am the Chief of Police of Berlin ! ”

I learnt later on that he was Emil Eichhom, a
dangerous Communist agitator in the service of Soviet
Russia who had had himself nominated chief of the
Berlin ’ police during the revolution. He had trans-
formed the central police station at the Alc,\anderplat 2 ,
commonly known as the “ Red House,” into a fortress
and had picked his personal bodyguard from the most
obscure elements of the Berlin proletariat. Most of
them were fugitives from jail. It was said that
Eichhom had ordered the arrest of many political
enemies and officials of the old regime, and that he
had had them executed in the courtyard of police
headquarters without trial. A month later, this
strange chief of police organised the riots in the streets
of Berlin and the Social Democratic government had
to appeal to the army to dislodge him from the Red
House, where he withstood a regular siege.

Such was the man into whose hands we had now
been delivered. He took us to police headquarters
and examined us.

“ You are accused,” he said, “ of treason and anti-
revolutionary activities. You are enemies of the

Fritz Thyssen showing Hitler an industrial plant. From left to right, Albert Vogler (Vice-President United
Steel Works), Hitler, Thyssen, Dr. Borbel, another director United Steel Works.

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

>eople and have asked for the intervention of French
roops in order to prevent the Socialist revolution.”

None of us had had the slightest contact with the
French army of occupation. We all protested.

Eichhom went on insolently :

“ Don’t try to deny it. I am well informed. The
lay before yesterday you had a conference at Dort-
nund with other industrialists and you have decided
:o send a delegation to the French general to ask him
» occupy the Ruhr. This is treason. What have
,rou to say, gentlemen ? ”

We looked at each other in astonishment. None of*
ns had gone to Dortmund. So far as I was concerned,

[ knew nothing of such a decision. Later on I learned
that the alleged conference had never taken place.
My father and I could produce an alibi. We had
not left Miihlheim for a week ; numerous witnesses
could affirm it. Eichhom answered brutally :

” Those witnesses ! All bourgeois ! Their state-
ments have no value whatever. Take ’em away.”

We were led out of the chief’s office. We did not
feel reassured. Had we escaped death at Miihlheim
only to be shot here ? After a short interval an
employee came to inform our guzirds that there was
no more room left for prisoners at police headquarters.

“ Take them to Moabit,” he said.

That was the main prison of Berlin. At the gate
of police headquarters a prison car awaited us.
Through the bars we could see the agitation in the
Berlin streets ; near the Alexanderplatz a machine-gun
car was on patrol. After twenty minutes our car
entered the prison yard. The director came to meet
us and said :

“ I don’t know anything about this affair. At any

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

people and have asked for the intervention of French
troops in order to prevent the Socialist revolution.”

None of us had had the slightest contact with the
French army of occupation. We all protested.

Eichhom went on insolently :

“ Don’t try to deny it. I am well informed. The
day before yesterday you had a conference at Dort-
mund with other industrialists and you have decided
to send a delegation to the French general to ask him
to occupy the Ruhr. This is treason. What have
you to say, gentlemen ? ”

We looked at each other in astonishment. None of'
us had gone to Dortmund. So far as I was concerned,
I knew nothing of such a decision. Later on I learned
that the alleged conference had never taken place.
My father and I could produce an alibi. We had
not left Miihlheim for a week ; numerous witnesses
could affirm it. Eichhorn answered brutally :

“ Those witnesses ! All bourgeois ! Their state-
ments have no value whatever. Take ’em away.”

We were led out of the chief’s office. We did not
feel reassured. Had we escaped death at Miihlheim
only to be shot here ? After a short interval an
employee came to inform our guards that there was
no more room left for prisoners at police headquarters.

“ Take them to Moabit,” he said.

“ I don’t know anything about this affair. At any

I PAID HITLER

rate, it is perhaps much better for you to be here.
With me at least you are safe.”

This seemed to confirm the sinister rumours about
the executions at police headquarters. The director
of the Moabit prison was an old official who was
responsible to the Prussian state administration, and
not to the redoubtable chief of police.

My father was interned at the infirmary., by reason
of his old age. He endured this adventure with the
utmost calm. “ Never mind,” he said, “ at my age
no great accident can befall me.” The other indus>
trialists and myself were confined in the cells for
prisoners under investigation, and not in the section
for convicted prisoners. We lived an almost luxurious
life. We had our daily walks in the prison yard. Later
on I received numerous letters from prisoners who re-
minded me of the time we had spent together at Moabit.

Next morning the Protestant prison chaplain entered
my cell. He came to bestow upon me the consolations
of his faith. I told him I was a Catholic. He left
without even saying good-bye. I was outside his
competency. Several minutes passed and the Catholic
chaplain arrived. He made a little speech that I shall
remember all my life.

“ Yes, I know,” he said to me, “ it’s always the same
story ; the first day you pretend to be full of courage,
and you don’t believe anything will happen to you.
But wait for the third day — you’ll see what will
happen when you know what is awaiting you. Then
you will be crushed.” The good man thought we
had already been condemned to death. He applied
to me the method which he used with common-law
prisoners. In order to persuade them to accept his
ministrations .and make them repent their crimes, he

DEFEAT AND REVOLtmON 83

frightened them with viaons of dire punishments that
were supposed to be awaiting them.

On the fourth day I was freed with the others.
Eichhom, it seems, had had our declarations verified
and could not hold anything against us. Such was
my first personal contact with the Revolution of 1918.

On the 19th of November I had witnessed the return
of the troops in Cologne. They were the 6th and the
17th armies, who crossed the Rhine bridges at dawn
and in good order. The city was full of flags and the
population cheered the soldiers and offered them
coffee and cigarettes.

The Jager (i.e. Rifles) Division paraded on the
Cathedral Square before General von Dassel. They
were preceded by the black-white-and-red flag of the
Reich, the black-and-white Prussian flag, and the green
banner of the Jagers. Marching at the head of each
battalion the bands played military marches. They all
marched in goose step ; it was a comforting spectacle
of order and discipline in the midst of the revolutionary
upheaval that was spreading further and further.

The Miihlheim regiment returned three weeks later,
acclaimed by the population. But the calm did not
last for long. At Miihlheim all the workers knew my
father and respected him. At Hamborn, however,
where we also owned a factory, the radical elements
held the power. In the entire industrial district the
revolution was organised by the Communist Karl
Radek, delegate at Essen of the Russian soviets. It
is interesting to note, however, that at Essen itself he
had come to some agreement with the mayor, Hans
Luther, who later became Chancellor of the Reich,
then president of the Reichsbank, and finally ambassa-
dor to Washington. Luther has always been more

I PAID HITLER

successful as a politician than as a financial expert. I
do not happen to know by what means he succeeded in
softening up Radek, the Russian revolutionary ; yet it is a
fact that the latter abstained from provoking any disorders
at Essen. He was all the more active in other cities.

On Christmas Eve, a strike was proclaimed at
Hambom. Alarmed, the mayor called me on the
telephone to ask me to come over. However, as I
said, Hugo Stinnes had managed to negotiate, right
after the armistice, an agreement with the unions in
the name of the entire industry of the district. This
agreement had not been denounced. I recalled this
to the mayor, adding that I could not conclude any
separate arrangement. That was that. But early on
the following morning, a delegation of five Communist
workers came to my home at Mulhheim. They came
to take me to Hamborn by force. I did not fancy
the prospect of repeating my recent Berlin experience.

I told the butler to let them know that I was
dressing and to ask them to come in and take some
coffee while I was getting ready. While they were
drinking coffee, I warned my wife and asked her to
go with my little daughter to Duisburg, which was
occupied by Belgian troops. In the meantime, we
arranged, I was to go and warn my father. He was
living at about eight miles’ distance from Muhlheim
at the Castle of Landsberg on the Ruhr. I left by a
hidden door and proceeded to Landsberg. My father
and I left immediately, afoot, along the road. But
soon we were given a lift in a car, which saved my old
father a painful walk of about seven miles. We had
good reason to fear that we would be arrested once
more. Already the rumour was spreading that well-
known personalities had been shot by Communist

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

bands. The best known of those executions of hostages
is the one that took place at Munich, where the revo-
lutionary government ordered the notables of the city
who had been arrested to be executed without trial.

The impressions which those agitated days have left
upon me have never been blotted out. I have spent my
life among workers. My father had worked with them at
the beginning of his career. Never have the workers of
our factories shown us any kind of hostility, still less of
hatred — not even the Communists. All disorders and
excesses have almost always been due to foreigners.

Hamborn has always been the ‘‘ reddest ” town of
the industrial district. Several years after the revo-
lution the German National party, to which I belonged,
invited me to attend an electoral meeting in that
Communist citadel. All along the way there were
demonstrations against the presence at Hamborn of a
reactionary candidate, which the crowd considered to
be a provocation. Out of caution, I had left my car
some distance from the meeting place. The party
committee had been clumsy enough to organise its
electoral meeting in premises usually employed for
Communist demonstrations. As I arrived at the door
of the hall I found the place occupied to a large extent
by people wearing the Communist party insignia. The
atmosphere was stormy. However, the candidate
made his speech without being interrupted. Then the
opposition replied. A local Communist leader passed
all the industrialists of the district in review, passing
judgment on one after the other. I was sitting in the
front row aud he certainly had seen me. His speech was
violent. I expected him to attack me and thus provoke a
hostile demonstration. Nothing of the kind happened.

During the entire critical period that preceded

I PAID HITLER

Hitler’s accession to power I often had to deal with
Communists who were working in our factories. As
I spoke to them I realised that many of them were
^mated by a good deal of idealism. They believed
in that false doctrine, fancying that it would secure
happiness to the proletariat. But at the time the
revolution took place, those who committed excesses
were not found among local workers. The organisers
of strikes and riots were professional political agitators,
many of whom were in the pay of the revolutionaries
at Moscow : these were the men responsible for
riots and murders. The Social Democratic party
consisted of reasonable and moderate people. When
the miners struck in January, 1919, I took part in the
negotiations with the strikers. They understood the
difficult position of the industrialists. The latter, for
their part, tried their very best to remedy the food
shortage which resulted from the continuation of the
AJlied blockade. We came to an agreement, and this
agreement would always have been respected had it
not been for the intervention of the radicals and the
anarchists, whose only function it is to create or to
encourage disorder in times of crises.

During an entire year, 1918-1919 , 1 felt that Germany
was going to sink into anarchy. Strikes followed one
another without either motives or results, since the
feeding of the working population did not depend on the
employers. It was impossible to reorganise industrial
production* The mining of coal diminished day by
day. We ever feared that saboteurs might destroy the
machinery. No one was any longer assured of his
individual freedom, or even of the safety of his life.
A man could be arrested and shot without any
reason.

DEFEAT AND REVOLUTION

It was then that I realised the necessity — if (Germany
was not to sink into anarchy — of fighting all this
radical agitation which, far from giving happiness to
the workers, only created disorder. The Social
Democratic party endeavoured to maintain order, but
it was too weak. The memory of those days did much
to dispose me, later on, to offer my help to National
Socialism, which I believed to be capable of solving
in a new manner the pressing industrial and social
problems of the great industrial country which is
Germany.

Historical Notes

The Kiel Mutinies

The German Revolution began in October, 1918, with
the mutiny of the sailors of the navy stationed at Kiel.
The immediate cause was the sailors’ dissatisfaction with
the bad food which began to be served aboard the warships
in the summer of 1918. A number of marines and sailors
who had participated in the disorders were arrested by
their superiors and were threatened with severe punish-
ment. Many naval officers distinguished themselves by
their cruelty in making arrests. The secret revolutionary
organisations, which then already covered the whole
country, exploited these incidents for agitation among
the naval crews. When an armistice seemed almost
certain, some members of the admiralty were still prepar-
ing for the sailing of certain battleships and cruisers of the
German fleet, in the hope of fighting a decisive battle on
the sea. Among the sailors, however, and also among
the lower naval officers, a strong feeling of opposition
began to spread. In the early days of November, scores
of sailors left their ships and organised parades through the
city, waving the red flag ; they were joined by a large
number of workers and of soldiers on furlough. Shops
had to be closed after several stores had been loot^.
Noske* a Social Democratic member of the Reichstags

I PAID HITLER

was sent to Kiel ; he succeeded in directing the Kiel
movement into orderly channels, especially after it was
learned that the Republic had been proclaimed in Berlin.

The Spartacus League

After the Social Democratic Party had split, during the
War, over the question of war credits, radical agitation
began to spread among socialist workers. It was at first
directed mainly against the government and its conduct
of the War. After the triumph of the Bolshevist revolution
in Russia, however, the agitation took on a more revolu-
tionary character and was pointed particularly against the
leadership of the Social Democratic Party. A particularly
important role was played in this propaganda by a series
of letters signed “ Spartacus,” in imitation of the name
of the leader of a historic slave revolt in ancient Rome.
No doubt these letters contributed much towards the
kindling of the German Revolution. They were assiduously
read, although the domestic police as well as the military
police at the front confiscated all the copies of which they
could get hold. It has never been possible to establish
who belonged to the “ Spartacus League,” by which the
letters were distributed. It appeared later on that the
leader of the League was an old member of the Reichstag,
Xedebour, and that Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
were his close collaborators.

The Government op People’s Commissaries

Immediately after the jjroclamation of the German
Republic, Germany was governed by a “ Council of the
Pcoplejs Commissaries ” which consisted of three members
of the older majority wing of the Social Democratic party,
and three members of the “ Independent Socialists,” who
had seceded from the Social Democratic party after it had
voted for the war credits during the first part of the World
War. Friedrich Ebert, chairman of the Social Democratic
party, presided over the Council.

CHAPTER TWO

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

Versailles and the Ruhr

M y family has always been Catholic. My
ancestors came from the left bank of the
Rhine, after having been settled as peasants in the
frontier region between Liege and Aix-la-Chapelle.
My father and I belonged, until after the World War,
to the Catholic Centre party,* my father being very
close to Matthias Erzberger, the party’s leader. We
were almost the only Catholics among the industrialists
of the district ; most of them were Protestants. To
be a prominent Catholic in a region administered by
the Prussians was not always without disadvantages.
We had had an example of this under Bismarck, at
the time of the famous Kulturkampf, That was the
reason we gave our support to the Centre party, a
party which defended the rights of Catholics against
the policy of the government, often excessively
Prussian and Protestant. But after the war the
Centre party, and especially its president, Erzberger,
lost all sense of national pride. At the time of the
* See Historical Notes at the end of chapter, page 103.

I PAID HITLER

Armistice and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles*
my father and I were deeply saddened by the
spectacle of Germany’s abject humiliation. We
resigned from the Centre party after it had participated
in the signing of the Treaty. ,

In the spring of 1919 I went to Paris with one of the
members of the German Peace Delegation, Postal
Minister Johann Giesberts. Giesberts held his member-
ship in the delegation primarily as the mandatory of
the important Catholic party. I myself held no
official appointment. I had hoped, however, to be of
service to the German delegation in the discussion of
the economic questions which were to be settled by
the Peace Treaty, by making use of the numerous
contacts I had made in France before the war. But
it was absolutely impossible for me to renew these
relations. I made several trips from Versailles to
Paris, but always under close police surveillance.

It is not necessary to retrace the painful history of
the negotiations at Versailles. To-day it is clear to
everybody that the treaty there imposed on Germany
was nefarious. But I should like to pay tribute to
the memory of Count Brockdorff-Rantzau. The
Socialist government of Germany, availing itself of
his diplomatic experience, had appointed him minister
of foreign affairs and chief of the delegation to
negotiate the peace. Brockdorff had accepted this
trust in the hope of being able to discuss and conclude
a treaty founded on law. The attitude of the Allies
dispelled this hope. Glemenceau imposed on
Germany a treaty which charged her with the
responsibility for the war, condemned her to pay
reparations which were absurd from the point of view
* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 104.

NATIONAL HUMIUATION

9 *

of economics, mutilated her frontiers, and deprived
the German nation of the right to dispose of its own
affairs. Brockdorff, with whom I was well acquainted,
was opposed to the signing of the treaty. The
economic experts designated to study the conditions
pertaining to reparations (to whom I was unofficially
attached) declared these conditions to be unfulfillable.*

I stayed nearly three months at Versailles. I left
on June i6th, 1919, to accompany the German
ministers belonging to the Peace Delegation to
Weimar, where the government and the National
Assembly were then in session. Brockdorff did his
best to persuade the German government not to sign
the Treaty. I myself tried to convince the Catholic
deputies whom I knew that it would be an error to
accept die Draconian conditions of the Allies. Almost
all of them were of the opinion that the Treaty could
not be fulfilled, but that a refusal to sign was out of
the question.

This was a capital political mistake. By signing, wc
engaged ourselves to fulfil. Yet we knew fulfilment
to be impossible. It is my opinion that the great
political lie which has poisoned Europe for over
twenty years began on the day of the signature of the
Treaty of Versailles.

Brockdorff had insisted, in arguing with the govern-
ment, that signature should be refused. He did this
in the full realisation of the consequences which would
result for Germany. Field Marshal von Hindenburg,
when consulted as to the possibility of military
resistance, declared that resistance in the west would
be useless in the face of the opponents’ superior means.
But he added : “My duty as a soldier is to choose
* S«e Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 106.

I PAID HITLER

death in preference to a dishonourable- peace.**
BrockdorflTs advice was to let the Allies overrun
Germany and let them take all the responsibility for
a military action against a people which would not
defend itself. He envisaged the prospect of foreign
domination, of occupation, of famine. . . .

“ Gan we at this moment demand such sacrifices
from the German people ? ” he said to the German
chancellor, Friedrich Ebert. “ I believe that we
must,*’ he added proudly, “ for these are the last
sacrifices which the war demands of our people.”

Ebert understood the internal situation. He knew
that the refusal which Brockdorff demanded might
result in revolution. He was afraid to see Germany
plunged into Communism and anarchy. In my
opinion Ebert exaggerated the danger. The magnifi-
cent behaviour of the entire population later on,
during the occupation of the Ruhr, has borne me out.

In a moving letter addressed to the Socialist
chancellor, Brockdorff admitted, however, that Ebert’s
reasons were plausible. ” But,” he added, ” if that
is the state of things I cannot pursue the foreign
policy which I had intended to follow.” And he
offered his resignation.

The dilemma in which the German leaders thus
found themselves was a tragic one. They knew that
acceptance of the treaty in the proposed form con-
stituted a lie to the Allies and a lie to the German
people, because the treaty was not fulfillable. Rejection,
on the other hand, meant surrendering the country
to immediate foreign occupation and revolutionary
upheaval. Ebert had said in November, 1918, “I
detest revolution as I detest sin.” He decided to
accept. He was supported in his attitude l)y the

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

93 ■

leader of the Centre party, Matthias Erzberger, whose
political temperament favoured compromise and
subtle manoeuvring. To him nothing was ever final ;
all you needed, in his opinion, was patience and
ability in order to change the course of events and
re-establish a situation.

For my father and myself the refusal to sign would
have resulted in consequences of the gravest kind.
For the Rhenish-Westphalian industry would have
been the first to feel the Allies’ heavy hand. This
became obvious a few )’cars later, when Poincar6
ordered the occupation of the Ruhr. But this hostile
foreign pressure inevitably provoked a sudden re-
crudescence of patriotism. Perhaps this would have
come in any case. Be that as it may, my father and
I were in favour of rejecting obligations which
manifestly could not be fulfilled. It was at this
point that we broke with Erzberger, in spite of the
deep friendship which existed between him and my
Tather. Thus we left the party to which our family
traditionally belonged, of which my father had been
a member from its foundation — the Catholic Centre.

The extremist excesses of 1918 and 1919 threatened
Germany’s destruction through fire and blood. The
signature of a humiliating treaty condemned a whole
nation to a sort of economic slavery, which on top of
everything had been rendered insulting by extorting
from the German people a confession of guilt. The
surrender forced on the so-ealjed “ war criminals ”
was resented as a humiliation by all the veterans of
the war. The revolutionary danger and the humilia-
tion of Versailles gave rise to the violent nationalistic
and anti-Socialistic reaction which soon gathered
momentum throughout Germany.

I PAID HITLER

Groups commanded by former army officers were
being formed here and there as a check to the elements
of disorder. They were called “ free corps.” The
government more or less tolerated them, for the
Socialist members of the government of the Reich,
and especially Gustav Noske, the Reichswehr minister,
were convinced that it was necessary to erect a solid
barrier against the rising flood of anarchy if the
country was to be brought back to work. Ebert
himself, destined to become President of the German
Republic later on, was far from being an extremist.
It was due to his personal influence and the complete
harmony existing between him and Field Marshal von
Hindenburg (his eventual successor as president),
throughout these difficult years, that the army was
able to contribute to the rebirth of discipline and the
sense of order in Germany.

It was the military and conservative elements in
Germany that staged the first post-war coup d^etat in
1920. Even at the time of the signature of the
Versailles Treaty, in June, 1919, a party of officers
wanted to set up a military dictatorship and appealed
to their chief, Gustav Noske, the Socialist minister
of defence. The coup of March, 1920, was in fact a
revival of that project. Only this time the generals
wanted to be absolutely rid of Left-Wing radicalism :
they had pushed Noske aside in favour of Dr. Wolfgang
Kapp, a conservative official from East Prussia,
founder of the Fatherland party, which during the
war had protested against the peace resolution voted
by the Reichstag, in 1917.

General Ludendorff supported the new project*
That the general was a great soldier had been amply
demonstrated during the war. But he had never

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

possessed any political sense. The greatest mistake
of his career was to ask to be relieved of his command
in the fall of 1918. I am persuaded that if he had
remained at his post, he could have prevented the
Kaiser’s abdication and flight to the Netherlands.
In that event the history of post-war Germany would
have taken quite a different turn.

Politically the coup d^itat of 1920, afterwards
known as the Kapp Putsch, had been badly prepared.
The conspirators had no genuine support except that
of Captain Ehrhardt’s Marine Brigade, and several
other military units. But the army as a whole had
not been definitely won over. Nevertheless the
putschists succeeded in taking possession of Berlin and
its government offices. Whereupon the government
proclaimed a general strike.

In the industrial district the consequence of this
clumsy attempt at counter-revolution was a new
revolutionary movement. At Essen, at Duisburg, at
Diisseldorf, and at Miihlheim, revolutionary com-
mittees’ reminiscent of the councils of workmen and
soldiers of 1918 seized political power under the
pretext of the general strike proclaimed by the Ebert
government. The situation was rendered the more
critical when the workers learned that General Watter,
who commanded the Reichswehr at Munster, sym-
pathised with the counter-revolutionaries at Berjjia
and was preparing to enter the Ruhr. The workmen
immediately organised a militia of which a large part
was armed with the rifles retained after the war.

As soon as the trouble began, I left Miihlheim with
my family in order to go to Krefeld, on the left bank
pf the Rhine. The bridge over the Rhine was
guarded by Belgians, who allowed me to pass. The

X PAID HTTLER

German industrialists watched the new revolutionary
movement with apprehension, for it disorganised the
whole economic life of the district anew. The dis-
orders lasted a fortnight. Finally the Reichswehr was
obliged to intervene in order to re-establish order,
and veritable battles took place at Duisburg and at
Wesel between the workers’ militia and the army.

The abortive Kapp Putsch and the wave of radicalism
that followed it had powerful repercussions in our
industrial region. Agitated spirits could no longer be
calmed. During the following year new strikes and
street battles occurred in many industrial cities of
the Ruhr. Only gradually could quiet be re-
established. And hardly had the revolutionary danger
b^n overcome when the weight of reparations began
to disorganise economic life.

The flood of currency inflation* rose steadily and
slowly ruined the German middle class, which did
not understand the monetary mechanism. Even my
father no longer understood it. One day, returning
from a trip, he told me with indignation that the
hotel where he habitually stopped wanted to double
the price of his room. He had refused to pay the
new price and had taken another room, one which
cost what he usually paid. But it was, he said, a
miserable attic under the roof of the hotel ! All the
same, at another time he ordered a parcel of securities
to be sold at a price which seemed advantageous.
In reality, of course, the sum in paper marks had
only a fictitious value.

The most serious consequence of the inflation was
that it made it impossible to adapt wages to the
constant rise in the cost of living. A workman’s
* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page io6.

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

family could no longer obtain the prime necessities of
life ; for the weekly wage, whose value diminished
from day to day, made it impossible to apportion the
purchases of daily necessities through the week which
followed any given pay day. To remedy this state of
things the Ruhr industry finally issued a kind of
emergency money with stable value, with the object
of enabling housewives to do their marketing regularly
at the workers* co-operative stores.

While we were discussing ways and means in the
midst of these difficulties, the French government
under Poincare decided, at the beginning of 1923, to
occupy the industrial region.* On January nth,
French and Belgian troops entered Essen and Gelsen-
kirchen. On the following day the occupation was
extended to Bochum, to Dortmund, and tlie entire
basin of the Ruhr. In several cities incidents of a
sanguinary character between the troops and the
population took place. Workmen were killed.

It was my opinion that Poincare’s coup de force
might have given us the chance to denounce the
Treaty of Versailles. In effect, in deciding to take
so grave a measure as the military occupation of a
whole German region under the pretext that certain
deliveries, of minimal importance, had not been made
on time, the Belgian and French governments had
become the first to violate a treaty whose execution
tlicy wanted ostensibly to assure. Indeed, the crown
attorneys of Great Britain have never admitted the
existence of a legal basis for the occupation of the
Ruhr.

The German coal syndicate presently met at
Hamburg. I attended the meeting, together with
• Sec Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 107.

I PAID HITLER

such other industrialists as Kirdorf, Krupp von Bohlen»
Klockner, and Hugo Stinnes. I was of the opinion
that, since we had not taken advantage of the
occupation by denouncing the Treaty violated by
Poincare, we should now resist.

A second session was held several days later at
Essen. The other industrialists adopted my opinion
and asked me to be their spokesman. The meeting
passed a resolution declaring that the industrialists
would deliver coal to the Allies in accordance with
the Berlin government’s consent. At the same time
we sent an emissary to Berlin to ask the government
to cover us by forbidding the deliveries. Not
everybody had supported our intransigent attitude.
Two days after the occupation the French engineers
arrived and got in touch with the mine-owners. A
few of these operators entered into negotiation. In
order to enforce respect for the resolution voted at
Essen, we then decided to institute a secret tribunal
which was to punish the refractory owners.

It was a very critical moment for Germany. If
France had succeeded in getting possession of the
Ruhr industry, the country would never have been
able to recover. Two years later I met, in Paris,
a section chief in the foreign ministry of which
Briand was the head. He said : “ During the

war the Germans wanted to destroy France in
order to get hold of its mineral deposits. During
the Ruhr occupation it was France which wanted
to destroy Germany in order to get its coal.’* That
was true. But how much better it would have
been for the two countries to have come to an
agreement !

Several days after the entry of the French troops

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

I was summoned by the French general. He received
me very correctly and asked, “ Have the industrialists
decided to effect the deliveries which Germany has
agreed to make under the Treaty ? ” I replied that
the occupation of the territory was considered by the
German government to be a violation of the Treaty
and that in consequence we had received orders not
to effect these deliveries. In that case, the general
told us, the industrialists themselves would have to
take the consequences of their refusal.

On January 20th I and several other mine-owners
were arrested and tranferred to the military prison
of Mainz. I stayed there three days.

When they heard the news of my imprisonment
the workmen of our factories became agitated. There
had already occurred a grave incident between the
people and the army of occupation at Bochum. In
the face of this unrest among the workers, the French
government decided not to have me condemned to
prison for five years, as I had expected they would.
The court-martial merely imposed a fine of 300,000
gold marks. I was set at liberty at once, before having
paid the fine.

As I left the court-martial, the population of Mainz
and delegations of workmen who had come from the
Ruhr staged a great demonstration in our honour.
We were carried to the railway station as in triumph.
My father, who had attended the session of the court-
martial, had been treated with great courtesy by the
French authorities.

When I returned to Miihlheim I organised the
passive resistance which was Germany's answer to the
occupation. In view of his advanced age, my father
took no part in the movement whatsoever. The

100

I PAID HITLER

government had forbidden the coal deliveries. The
officials had been instructed' to refuse to obey the
order of the occupation authorities. The railway
employees went on strike. Navigation on the Rhine
was stopped. The French themselves had to provide
the means of transporting passengers and goods by
rail, road and water. The army occupied the mouths
of the mine pits belonging to the Prussian state. When
this happened, the miners quitted work. In the other
collieries the work continued, but the coal accumulated
in great heaps on the surface. No train, no boat
transported any of it to Belgium or France.

In order to break the resistance, the occupation
authorities established a customs cordon between the
occupied territories and the rest of Germany. No
merchandise was allowed to leave. Nevertheless, we
succeeded, in several cases, in shipping whole train-
loads. The August Thyssen foundries at Muhlheim
had their own freight stations. These were guarded
by Belgian officials. In order to distract the soldiers’
attention, we sent them pleasant and pretty young girls,
who performed their mission very well. During such a
period of distraction perhaps four trains could be loaded
and dispatched. Unfortunately one of the loads was too
heavy and the couplings of the cars broke. We were
caught in the act, and an inquiry uncovered the secret.

The passive resistance was organised in its entirety
by me. But in my task I had the absolute co-opera-
tion of the population. The Catholic clergy, particu-
larly the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne, supported
our efforts with the greatest devotion. It is thanks to
them that there could be accomplished in the Ruhr
a real national union which made it possible to save
the integrity of the Reich.

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

lOI

It is necessary to-day to emphasise this attitude of
the Catholic clergy. The Prussian minister of labour,
Herr Brauns, was a cleric. It was he who took all
the measures to prevent work in the mines of the
Prussian state domain. The Vatican was the only
power which dared to send a diplomatic representative
into the Ruhr during this trying time. The American
ambassador, whom I had approached in order to get
the help of the Qiiakers in feeding the working popula-
tion, did not dare to come himself, or even to be
represented.

The National Socialists had nothing to do with
the passive resistance. They have since then boasted
of having organised acts of sabotage. That is abso-
lutely untrue. Their “ hero,’’ Schlagetcr, who was
arrested and condemned to death by the French war
council, was not a Nazi at all ; he belonged to a
good Catholic family.

Hitler has never understood the national import-
ance of the fight which we then carried on along the
Rhine. Already during that time he was dreaming
of seizing power, and he was preparing his famous
Munich Putsch.

The highly patriotic attitude of the Catholic clergy
and population during the occupation of the Ruhr
has been rewarded by Hitler with the blackest in-
gratitude. Ten years later the Nazi regime even
flagrantly reproached the Catholics with not being
good Germans. He has arrested our priests, has
falsely accused them in the most odious manner ;
he has dragged bishops before his tribunals, where
they have been insulted, I shall tell later on what
conclusions the Rhenish Catholics are prepared to
draw from such ingratitude and such indignity.

102

I PAID HITLER

Historical Notes

The Parties in the German Legislative National
Assembly and in the German Reichstag

Immediately after the outbreak of the German Revolu-
tion there existed only two Socialist parties — the Social
Democratic party, which was the older majority wing,
and the Independent Socialist party. The Communist
party came into existence only considerably later, when
the Independent Socialist party split ; the Communists
took over the majority of the defunct party, while the rest
joined the Social Democrats.

Ajs for the non-Socialists, it seemed for some time as
though there was no bourgeoisie capable of organising
itself in a party system. This situation changed only
when it became certain that the German Republic would
endorse the parliamentary form of government. First of
the non-Socialists to enter the political stage was the
German Democratic party. It recruited its members
from the adherents of the fonner German Progressive
party and the National Liberal party, both of which had
played an important part in the Imperial Reichstag.
The new party’s platform was republican and pacifistic ;
it advocated the reconstruction of German economy by
collaborating with all European nations ; it favoured an
economical financial policy and the extension of the
existing social legislation, and wished to prepare for
Germany’s entry into the League of Nations.

As the founders of the Democratic party refused to give
a representative position within the new party to Gustav
Stresemann, who had been one of the National Liberal
party’s leaders, Stresemann was prevailed upon by other
members of the former National Liberal party to accept
the leadership of another new party — the German People’s
party. Its membership consisted mainly of the upper
commercial class, university professors, and, above all.

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

103.

industrialists whose interest lay principally in the revival
of purchasing power in the German home market. The
programme of the German People’s party recognised the
Republic as a. fait accompli. It demanded the re-establish-
ment of the German people’s self-respect, it advocated
reasonable concessions in social welfare legislation, so as
to secure a peaceful understanding with Labour, and it
provided for the reconstruction of German agriculture.

Immediately after the foundation of the German
Democratic party, the Catholic Centre party began to
resume activity. It did not think it worth while to change
its name. The Centre party had been founded in 1875,
when Bismarck had engaged in the Kulturkampf, the
politico-religious struggle against the alleged inter-

ferences of the Pope in German affairs. The harsh
measures used by Bismarck against religious orders and
against priests caused an ever-growing percentage of
Germany’s Catholic voters — almost half of the total con-
stituency — to join the Centre party. Partly as an opposi-
tion party, partly as a government coalition party (during
the World War), the Centre constantly increased in
importance. The revolution changed nothing in the
composition of its membership ; as before the war it com-
prised all economic strata — Catholic workers as well as
Catholic aristocrats. Naturally, as in Germany as a
whole, so within the Centre party, the conservative
elements found mostly among the representatives of the
nobility, heavy industr)% and big business, w^ere now willing
to agree to all concessions made necessary by the con-
ditions of the time. The programme of the Centre also
approved of the republican form of government ; it
advocated a pacifistic policy, demanded the reconstruction
of agriculture, and favoured the raising of the standard of
living of the middle classes.

The newly founded German National party represented
a modernised version of the old conservative pre-war
parties. Its membership comprised the large landowners.

104

I PAID HITLER

a large part of heavy industry, several groups of workers
organised as Protestant Christian bodies, and certain
elements of the middle classes who were bound to the
Imperial family and the former German monarchs by
sentimental ties or by material interests. A large number
of German university professors also signed up as members.
The programme of the German National party was
moderate in its form ; but its content was as nationalistic
as was possible at the time. Its economic demands
centred around the maintenance of the working capacity
and efficiency of Germany’s middle class and the agri-
cultural communities.

The National Socialist German Labour party made a
comparatively late appearance in the Reichstag. It was
at first represented by a very small number of deputies
who, moreover, split into several groups. Eventually it
became the second largest party in the Reichstag ; shortly
before Hitler seized power, it succeeded in depriving the
Social Democratic party of its rank as the largest single
party of the Reichstag.

Among the more important splinter parties, which often
played a decisive part by holding the balance of power,
there were the Bavarian People’s party (a Bavarian version
of the Catholic Centre party) and the German Economic
party, whose following consisted mainly of artisans and
small shopkeepers, convinced of their economic importance
and the futility of securing due consideration from the
more powerful political groups.

The Signing of the Peace Treaty

The Legislative National Assembly at Weimar found it
a difficult task to reach a decision as to the acceptance or
rejection of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The result of
the vote remained uncertain up to the very last moment.
The Social Democrats and the German Democratic party
agreed in voting for the Treaty. The German Peoplc^s
party and the German National party rejected it. The

NATIONAL HUMILIATION

105

final decision depended on the Catholic Centre party ;
though the votes of several representatives of the People’s
party also hung in the balance. The position of those who,
in their minds at least, desired the signing of the Peace,
was weakened by the fact that Count Brockdorflf-Rantzau,
the minister of foreign affairs, had resigned, because, as
he explained in his letter to President Ebert, in the interest
of the German people, he felt he could not sign the Ver-
sailles peace terms. They were further weakened by the
rumour that in case Germany refused to sign the Peace,
the then latent differences between the Allies would become
acute and create an opportunity for Germany to secure
more favourable terms. On the other hand, there were
reliable sources of information to the effect that in the
event of non-acceptance, considerable military forces were
ready to march into Germany. Now, the consequences of
a possible Allied occupation of further German territories
WTre viewed with considerable apprehension. It was
feared not only that new revolutionary movements might
spread over the country, but also that the individual
governments of the German federal states might be ready
to make separate peace offers to the Allies. The govern-
ment of Wiirttemberg, it was rumoured, was already
firmly resolved to take such a step. The fear of such
possibilities eventually consolidated the majority by which
the National Assembly declared itself in favour of accepting
the Peace, despite the total uncertainty of the situation.

The “ Policy of Fulfilment ”

Throughout many years, the harsh economic conditions
imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, which found their
expression in the payment of the war reparations, created
dissension among the German people. From the vdry
start, one section of public opinion advocated utmost
resistance to the reparation terms, while the other section
demanded the fulfilment of the treaty obligations. Both
sections agreed that the demands imposed by the treaty

106 I PAID HITLER

could not possibly be fulfilled. The partisans of “ fulfil-
ment,” however, urged the view that it was necessary to
prove to the Allies that the fulfilment of Germany's
obligations was impossible, not only because Germany
was incapable of making the deliveries, but also because a
fulfilment of Germany’s obligations would have the
immediate result of creating disorder in the world market
and in international finance — and this very much to the
disadvantage of the Allies. In this way it was to be made
clear, especially to Great Britain and the United States,
that German payments would not suffice to reimburse
them for loans made to their allies and associates in the
late war. The partisans of fulfilment fully realised that
their method would impose certain sacrifices upon the
German people ; but they firmly believed that they would
gradually bring about the abrogation of the harsh terms
of the Treaty by peaceful and legal methods.

The German Inflation

Germany had financed her war almost entirely by
means of loans ; consequently, even before the end of the
war, inflation had taken on enormous proportions. The
currency issued amounted to something like ninety billion
marks, whereas the gold cover was not more than three
billions. The revolutionary government of the People’s
Commissaries increased the circulation of the currency still
further, since foreign countries continued to accept German
bank-notes as payment for the shipments of foodstuffs and
raw materials. Although a federal income lax was intro-
duced soon after the National Assembly had convened, the
circulation of bank-notes was further increased because
the capital for industrial stocks needed by German indus-
trial enterprises could best be raised on the credit of the
Reichsbank. Indeed, German industry was very busy, as
it could throw its products on the world market at low
prices, owing to the devaluation of German currency.
This procedure found the support of Dr. Havenstein, the

NATIONAL HUMILIATION IO7

president of the German Reichsbank. He clearly recog-
nised that the value of the mark would thus be constantly
lowered ; but he considered this to be the best method
of convincing the world of Germany’s inability to pay
war reparations. Numerous industrialists took advantage
of tliis opportunity by discounting enormous bills of
exchange at the Reichsbank, and paying them back in
more and more devalued notes. With their profits they
not only bought raw materials and paid their workers,
but they also acquired new enterprises, either by extending
their own factories or by buying up shares ; whereupon
they merged their enterprises into larger concerns. Private
banks, and also the German Reichsbank, in this way lost
ever-increasing amounts of their gold cover. At the
beginning of the organised “ passive resistance ” to the
occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops,
the Gcmian currency received its final blow. Indeed, the
enormous cost of this struggle was by no means covered
by taxation, but by the printing of new bank-notes. Even
before the end of the resistance labour began to rebel, as
the workers’ wives could buy practically no food in the
markets with the money their husbands had brought
home on the preceding evening. Industrial plants and
municipalities were obliged to create emergency currencies
on a fictitious gold basis, in order to prevent the workers
from setting the factories on fire. Thus the government
was forced to proceed to a stabilisation of the currency, in
which it succeeded with the help of foreign governments.
In November, 1923, the oflicial value of the American
dollar was fixed at forty-two billion marks !

The Occupation of the Ruhr

Germany had engaged herself to render to the Allies
w^r reparations in the form of cash payments as well as
deliveries of goods. From the very beginning most
Germans were convinced that it would be practically
impossible to fulfil all of Germany’s obligations, so far as

io8

I PAID HITLER

payments in goods were concerned. Chancellor Cuno
and his cabinet had made it their aim to reach a new
agreement with regard to Germany’s obligations. The
French government was already threatening that in case
Germany should delay her payments, France would make
use of her right given her by the Peace Treaty and occupy
the Ruhr district, Germany’s most important industrial
region. The offers made by the Cuno cabinet were all
rejected. The conviction that a “ terrible end,” in the
form of the occupation of the Ruhr, was preferable to an
“ endless terror,” i.e., the status quo, gradually grew
within the cabinet. Moreover, the members thought
themselves reliably informed to the effect that England
would not permit France to resort to violent military
measures. Eventually the Reparations Commission
actually declared that Germany was delaying her obliga-
tions because she had not delivered some one hundred
thousand wooden telegraph poles. Despite the unim-
portance of the direct cause, French and Belgian troops
marched into the Ruhr district late in 1922, without being
opposed by the other Allies. The German government
supported the population’s resistance to the occupation —
a decision which found the support of all parties, the
Communists as well as the Catholics and the German
Nationalists. In the summer of 1923 the resistance in
the Ruhr collapsed and the Cuno cabinet w^as replaced by
a government headed by Stresemann.

CHAPTER THREE

MY FIRST MEETING WITH HITLER

I N October, 1923, after the end of the passive
resistance, I made a trip to Munich. I paid a
call on General Erich Ludendorff, whose acquaint-
ance I had made at my father’s house during the war.

I have always had a great admiration for Ludendorff.
Under the influence of his second wife he adopted
in later years an attitude violently opposed to Catholic-
ism, and he almost played the part of the founder of
a new religion. During his last illness, however, he
was under the care of nuns in a Catholic hospital at
Munich. I have been told that he had flowers
purchased every day in order to decorate the altar.

After the revolution of 1918, General Ludendorff
enjoyed a great reputation among patriots. Although
he was a Prussian, he moved to the Bavarian capital
two years after the war, where he took up residence
with his sister and where he continued to work on
his memoirs without abandoning his close contact
with political life. As the Ruhr was being occupied,
Hugo Stinnes established relations with him, and
Ludendorff went to Berlin with a view to organising
military resistance to the occupation with the help of

X09

I PAID HITLER

the government and General von Seeckt. But both
General von Seeckt, who was then commander-in-
chieiF of the German army, and the Reich government
side-stepped this project — not without reason, it seems
to me, for considering the state in which Germany
found herself, military resistance would only have
increased the disaster.

The experiment in passive resistance which I
organised and, later on, the experiences of the Nazis
in Czechoslovakia have shown that a population which
systematically opposes violence by defenceless passivity
deprives the military of all their means ol* action.
They can kill, but they cannot force into obedience
a population which docs not resist them.

Just after the Ruhr incident, I was asked to become
the head of a Reich government to replace the cabinet
headed by Wilhelm Guno, which was universally re-
garded as too weak. Dr. Class, the head of the Pan-
German League, approached me on the subject. He
asked me to take advantage of the prestige I had
acquired by virtue of my activities during the Ruhr
occupation, and thus to revive successfully the national
counter-revolution in which Kapp had failed in 1920.
My answer to Dr. Class was this : “I am an in-
dustrialist. As an industrialist and a patriot I have
organised the passive resistance. I am not a politician.
I wish to serve my country only by doing my duty.**

I went to see Ludendorff chiefly to pay him a call
of courtesy, but also in order to discuss with him the
great national questions which then preoccupied his
mind as much as mine. I deplored the fact that
there were not at that time men in Germany whom
an energetic national spirit would inspire to improve
the situation.

MY FIRST MEETING WITH HITLER

III

“ There is but one hope/* LudendorfF said to me,
and this hope is embodied in the national groups
^hich desire our recovery.*’ He recommended to me
1 particular the Oberland League and, above all,
tie National Socialist party of Adolf Hitler. All
lese were leagues of young people and World War
eterans who w^cre resolved to fight Socialism as the
ause of all disorder. Ludendorff greatly admired
[itler. He is the only man,” he said, “ who has
ny political sense. Go and listen to him one day.”

I followed his advice. I attended several public
leetings organised by Hitler. It was then that I
ealised his oratorial gifts and his ability to lead the
lasses. What impressed me most, however, was the
rder that reigned in his meetings, the almost military
isciplinc of his followers.

Several days later I made his acquaintance at the
ouse of Dr. Max Erwin von Schcubner-Richter, a
oung Baltic nobleman who had taken refuge in
Jermany after the Bolshevik revolution. He was a
ery engaging person. He served as go-between for
litler and Ludendorff, the latter of whom had
rranged this interview. The conversation ran on
olitical topics.

We were at the worst time of the inflation. The
loney issued by the Reich, the individual states,
nd the municipalities sank in value from one day
) the next. In Berlin the government was in distress,
t was ruined financially. Authority was crumbling.
a Saxony a Communist government had been
)rmed and the Red terror, organised by Max
[oelz, reigned through the countryside. In Hamburg
Communist revolt had broken out. Hundreds were
lid to have been killed. After Saxony, Thuringia

112

I PAID HITLER

had given itself a Communist government. In the
Rhineland, Separatist revolts, more or less openly
sponsored by the Allied army of occupation, had
taken place at Diisseldorf, Aix-la-Chapclle, Mainz,
and in the Palatinate. The German Reich, which
had resisted the ordeals of war and of defeat, was
now about to crumble.

Amidst all this chaos, Bavaria seemed to be the last
fortress of order and patriotism. It was in Munich
that the revolution of 1918 had caused the greatest
ravages. The government of Kurt Eisner,^ the Red
terror, and the execution of hostages had left a pro-
found impression on the population. But Bavaria,
among all the German states, had recovered first.
A Catholic government, supported by the majority
of Bavarians, had succeeded in liquidating the revolu-
tion. Munich had bccoroe the centre of all those
who desired to re-establish discipline and authority.
In Berlin, Gustav Strescmanri had succeeded Chan-
cellor Cuno ; he put an end to passive resistance and
sought an agreement with France. His policy was
severely criticised. The patriotic leagues held it to
be treacherous to the German cause. As for the Con-
servatives and Catholics in Bavaria, they apprehensively
watched the progress of radical ism throughout Germany.

Little by little a new policy began to take shape
at Munich. If Germany should break into pieces,
it was said, Bavaria would remain the nucleus of
order whence recovery would come to the whole
country. The Bavarian government declared publicly
that they did not recognise any longer, so far as they
were concerned, the Treaty of Versailles, which had

* Publisher's Note : Kurt Eisner was the Independent Socialist
premier of Bavaria who in 1919 was murdered in cold blood by
Count von Arco, a young nationalistic “ patriot.**

MY FIRST MEETING WITH HITLER

II3

been broken by Poincar^. They proclaimed a state
of emergency in Bavaria.

The army corps which was stationed in Bavaria
and commanded by General von Lossow, a Bavarian,
refused to execute the orders of Berlin and put itself
at the service of the Bavarian government. As an
answer to the measures taken by the Berlin govern-
ment, Bavaria gave itself a kind of chief of state in
the person of Gustav von Kahr, who took the title of
Commissioner General of the State. This was almost
open rebellion against Berlin. The old Field Marshal
von Hindenburg, who happened to be spending his
holidays in his estate of Dietramszell in the Bavarian
Alps, sent a cable to the Bavarian government warning
it not to commit any irremediable acts and advising
it to consider the unity of the Reich. Several days
later the Bavarian government declared, in a procla-
mation, that the Bavarians were the most loyal of all
Germans, but that they had broken off diplomatic
relations with Communist Saxony,

Such was the atmosphere in which my first meeting
with Hitler took place. I cannot recall with cer-
tainty the exact part which each of us took in the
conversation. Yet I remember the general content.
Ludendorff and Hitler agreed to undertake a mili-
tary expedition against Saxony in order to depose
the Communist government of Dr. Zeigener. The
ultimate aim of the proposed expedition was to
overthrow the Weimar democracy, whose weakness
was leading Germany into anarchy.

Funds were lacking. Ludendorff accepted fees for
the interviews which he gave to American newspaper
correspondents. However, as he told me, this did
not get him very far. He had already solicited and

114

I PAID HITI^R

obtained the help of several industrialists, particularly
that of Herr Minnoux of the Stinnes firm. For my
part, I gave hipi about one hundred thousand gold
marks. This was my first contribution to the National
Socialist party. These funds, however, I delivered
neither to Hitler, nor to Scheubner-Richter, the
treasurer of the Kampfbund (the patriotic military
organisation under the political leadership of Hitler),
but to Ludendorff, whom I desired to use it as best
he could. I did not examine the details of the plans
evolved by Ludendorff and Hitler. I have already
said that I did not wish to mix in politics. I took
advantage of my stay at Munich also to visit Herr
von Kahr, who was to all practical purposes the
Bavarian chief of state.

Being the confidant of Crown Prince Rupprecht,
Kahr held that the Wittelsbach dynasty should be
re-established on the Bavarian throne as quickly as
possible. The Bavarian dynasty had never abdi-
cated. When the revolution of 1918 broke out. King
Ludwig III had left his country after authorising
the officers and officials to support the new order of
things. After the excesses committed by the Red
government the majority of Bavarians had again
become monarchists. Kahr contemplated the restora-
tion of the Wittelsbachs first of all. And then, per-
haps, a Wittelsbach might one day become emperor
of Germany or at least of a Catholic Germany to
which might be joined the western provinces of Austria.
Vienna, the Red citadel, where the Socialists were in
power, would be left outside.

Such was the atmosphere which I found in Munich
in the autumn of 1923. Political imagination was
given free rein. Infinite possibilities loomed every-

MY FIRST MEETING WITH HITLER

1X5

where. So far as I was concerned, I had no ambition
to play any part in this movemeilt. My duty as an
industrialist came first. It was a heavy duty in itself.
As soon as we might l\ee ourselves from disorder,
the ruins which war and revolution had left behind had
to be mended : Germany had to be put back to work.

Ludendorff and his allies, the patriotic leagues, had
undertaken Germany’s political recovery. I gave
them material assistance, but I did not wish to enter
political life.

Besides, I was unaware at the time of the importance
of Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist leader. No
doubt he was a good speaker — a political agitator
who knew how to carry the masses by his words, but
nothing more than just that. For me, Ludendorff
and Kahr were the two decisive figures. I knew
nothing of the deep disagreement that separated them
on the question of the restoration of the Bavarian
monarchy. Ludendorff was a personal enemy of
Crown Prince Rupprecht for reasons that went back to
the World War. But all this I only learned much later.

The true facts about the Hitler Putsch of November
9th, 1923, have never been entirely revealed. It
seems that the leading characters of that abortive
revolution — Ludendorff, Kahr, Hhler, and General
von Lossow — each had different intentions. This
accounts perhaps for the complete lack of agreement
on the day of the execution of the Putsch. I re-
member, however, a very revealing detail that might
possibly interest future historians.

General von Sceckt, who still was chief of the Reichs-
wehr in Berlin, had sent his wife to Munich during
these critical weeks. She returned to Berlin only
after the 9th of November. However, Sceckt had

I PAID HITLER

116

protested to the Bavarian government when the latter
assumed authority over the troops stationed in Bavaria
under General von Lossow. Was he playing a double
game ? • He had not supported the coup attempted by
Kapp in 19120, which had failed through the default
of the anny. Was he now — in 1923 — planning to
execute his own coup by seeking the support of the
Bavarians? The presence at Munich of Frau von
Seeckt seems to corroborate this explanation. If this
was so, the hasty action precipitated by Hitler caused
the failure of the entire scheme.

An expedition of the Bavarian army and of the
armed political leagues against Communist Thuringia
and Saxony was decided upon in Munich. But it
was Berlin that executed the decision. The army
corps stationed in Saxony received the order to march
on Dresden and to depose the Zeigener government.
The army carried out this mission with eagerness.
After Saxony came Thuringia’s turn. The two Red
governments resigned. The great political project
evolved at Munich had no further raison d’etre.

Hitler decided to march, nevertheless. Kahr and
Ludendorff opposed his plan. It is known in what
circumstances Hitler forced the Commissioner General
of the Bavarian State to give his consent — at the point
of the revolver. Ludendorff was informed only at
the last minute, but he placed himself at the head
of the parade that marched through the streets of
Munich on the following morning. The adventure
ended badly. The police fired on the demonstrators,
foiuteen of whom were killed and in particular
Scheubner-Richter, whom I had met a few days
before. Ludendorff marched erect among the bullets
that were whistling around his head. Hitler fled to

MY HRST MEETING WITH HITLER

II7

Uffing, near Munich, where he was arrested two days
later.

On the following day I went to see LudendorfT.
He was surprised. “ What gives you the courage to
come to me after what happened yesterday ? he
said as he received me. ‘‘ Everybody accuses me of
high treason.”

LudendorfT has never explained to me how he
came to be involved in the action, of which he
personally disapproved. I am convinced that he did
not withdraw from it only because he had given his
officer’s oath and therefore considered himself bound.
Besides, the Munich tribunal, which judged the con-
spirators of the gth of November, acquitted Luden-
dorff, because his responsibility in preparing the plot
could not be established.

General von Seeckt, General von Lossow, Com-
missioner General von Kahr, and the Bavarian
government desired a Right-Wing government in
Germany. No doubt they did not entirely agree
on the details of the execution of their plan. On
the whole, however, it was a question of attempting
all over again what Kapp had tried in Berlin. Only
this time failure was to be averted by starting the
coup in Munich, where the population was monar-
chist. Hitler, however, desired only one thing — to
seize the power for himself.

Never again did Ludendorff mention Hitler to
me. I have never known for what reason he broke
with the Nazi leader, of whose praise he was full
when I saw him before the Munich Putsch. As for
Herr von Kahr, he subsequently retired from political
life. Yet Hitler had him assassinated at the age of
seventy-two years on the 30th of June, 1934.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUNG
PLAN

My Advocacy of Franco-German Understanding

I FINANCED the National Socialist party for a
single, definite reason : I financed it because I
believed that the Young Plan spelled catastrophe for
Germany. I was convinced of the necessity of uniting
all parties of the Right, and I believed it possible to
reach agreement on a reasonable basis. With that
end in view I directed the negotiations with the
‘‘ Steel Helmet ” (an organisation of patriotic World
War veterans) and with the Young Men’s Groups of
the German National People’s party — directed them
at the instigation of Hitler and Goering. Hermann
Goering declared his willingness to place the National
Socialist Storm Troops (known as the SA) under the
leadership of the Steel Helmet. He always feared
that one day the SA would experience a great mis-
fortune.

The co-founder and chief organiser of the SA
formations was Ernst Rohm, a former officer of the
Imperial Army, who afterwards became the chief of

ii8

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUNG PLAN

staff of the SA, in closest association with Adolf Hitler
himself. Rohm was a military adventurer. He had
spent a long time in South America, where he was
particularly occupied with the re-organisation of the
Bolivian army. The impressions and experiences
which he gathered in South America furnished the
ideological basis on which the SA troops were con-
structed. Thus they became armed mercenaries
whose main purpose was to be ready for action in
the expected revolutionary upheavals. Goering feared
that the spirit of the SA men would prove an obstacle
in the pursuit of any constructive • policy.

I turned to the National Socialist party only after
I became convinced that the fight against the Young
Plan* was unavoidable if a complete collapse of
Germany was to be prevented. In no sense had I
been an opponent of the Dawes Plan,* since the
Dawes Plan envisaged a system of reparation pay-
ments to be made chiefly in goods. But under 'the
Young Plan the German reparation deliveries were
superseded entirely by money payments. In my
judgment the financial debt thus created was bound
to disrupt the entire economy of the Reich. Walter
Rathenau,^ too, had regarded this as a misfortune :
he had always maintained the view that Germany
could pay only in the goods it produced.

One of our representatives in the committee of

* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 125.

^ Publisher's Note : Walter Rathenau, a leading Liberal German
Jewish statesman and economist, the head of one of Germany’s
greatest electrical concerns, the A. E. G., had devised Germany’s war
rationing system and organised the conservation of war materials
as the answer to the British blockade. It is generally conceded that
this saved Germany from an early surrender. After the war, as
Foreign Minister, he was brutally murdered by nationalistic
desperadoes.

120

I PAID HITLER

•

experts which conducted the preliminary negotiations
concerning the revision of the Dawes Plan in Paris
was Director General Vogler, of the Gelsenkirchen
iron and steel concern. These Paris negotiations were
interrupted, and both Vogler and Dr. Hjalmar
Schacht, the president of the Reichsbank, returned
to Germany because they had misgivings about the
proposed Plan. In the end, too, Vogler did not sign
the new proposals which became the basis of the
Young Plan ; and I must admit that I had done all
I could to convince him of the correctness of his
misgivings.

My position was largely determined by what an
American banker told me and Vogler. I refer to
Mr. Clarence Dillon, of the firm of Dillon, Read &
Co., a Jew with whom we were in very friendly
relations. Mr. Dillon expressly said, “ If I may give
you a piece of advice, don’t sign.” I have never
forgotten this, and I have always remained particu-
larly grateful for his advice, for he gave it against
his own interests, and for the good of Germany.

Anybody with the power of clear judgment saw
that the Young Plan meant the pledging of Germany’s
entire wealth as a pawn for Germany’s obligations.
As a result, American capital was bound to flood
Germany. Isolated groups in Germany attempted, in
good time, to free their particular property from
this huge mortgage. In this connection I remember
particularly the following undertakings, forming part
of the electrical industry : the A.E.G. (one •'of the two
leading German electrical concerns), the S.O.F.I.N.A.,
and the electrical works of the Felten and Guillaume
concern. The stock of these companies was at this
juncture sold to a Franco-Belgian holding company,

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUNG PLAN

I2I

which has been holding them ever since. It was
wrong to do this, for it meant the beginning of a
financial liquidation of Germany. It would have
been far better for the industrialists concerned to
have opposed on principle the whole Versailles
system, and the Young Plan in particular.

It must be said, moreover, that the whole American
idea, which had such great influence on the details
of the Young Plan, has had pretty bad results in
America as well. For there, too, many German
concerns were converted into corporations whose
stock was sold to the public. To-day the shares of
these American companies are worth only a quarter
of the purchase price. It was a good piece of busi-
ness for the bankers, but in reality it constituted a
money inflation which far exceeded the normal
earnings of industrial operation. This was a time
when people had lost all sense of the normal in
figures. It must not be forgotten that the Young
agreements themselves comprised the astronomical
sum of twenty billion dollars.

The Young Plan was one of the principal causes
of the upsurge of National Socialism in Germany.
Of course, Alfred Hugenberg helped it along con-
siderably with his radical agitation ; it is true, too,
that the appointment of Hitler as chancellor of the
Reich would not have occurred — at least not so soon
— without the intrigues of Franz von Papen. But the
more profound causes were, nevertheless, the danger
of Communism in Germany, the occupation of the
Ruhr by the French and the Belgians, and finally
the Young Plan.

Soon after the liquidation of the Ruhr affair, I
went to Paris. This was long before Locarno, in the

123

I PAID HITLER

days when the intransigent Raymond Poincar6 was
still premier of France. I talked repeatedly with
several French ministers, including especially Aristide
Briand, who became foreign minister in 1925. My
first impression was that my mission would have a
favourable issue, although the French minister of
commerce kept me waiting for half an hour. Briand,
on the contrary, was very cordial and always received
me without delay. Unfortunately, however, the situa-
tion as a whole was still very strained. And the
word went round Paris that the French General Staff
was opposed to Briand’s policy of rapprochement.

Nevertheless I took pains to further the cause of
understanding through the Franco-German Society,
of which I was one of the founders. But the strain
continued and a violent incident at Germersheim in
the Palatinate ruffled people’s nerves anew. Some
further conferences were to be arranged, but that proved
no longer possible. All this was before the Locarno
Conference began a fresh series of negotiations, which
Was hailed as the beginning of a new era of good wUl.

If the German government of the day had not
accepted the Young Plan, some progress could surely
have been made, and more favourable results could
have been achieved. The trouble at that time, how-
ever, was caused by a serious psychological error on
the German side. I agree that Germany found itself
in a difficult situation just then, but it is precisely in
difficult situations that one must not compromise on
fundamental issues. It would have been easy to
resist when even the Americans said ''For God*s
sake, don’t ! ” Payment in money was simply not
possible, for money cannot be produced like gdods.

The rise of the National Socialists was also furthered

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUNG PLAN 12^

through the maladroitness of the other parties. I
have already mentioned how I was induced by the
National Socialists to negotiate with the Steel Helmet^
with a view to placing the SA troops under the Steel
Helmet’s supreme command. I talked with Major
Diisterberg, the chief of the Steel Helmet organisa-
tion, for a whole night. In the end, the offer of the
National Socialists was rejected by his side. A simi-
larly accommodating offer had been made by the
National Socialists to the cabinet of Chancellor Briin-
ing. They were willing to tolerate Briining, without
being represented in his cabinet, if the chancellor
would be prepared to say that he would part com-
pany with the Socialists. Josef Goebbels at that time
said, If Briining breaks with the Socialists we will
support him without entering the cabinet.” That
should have been done, but the offer was refused.

By means of his great adroitness Hitler was able
to harness the injured nationalism of the German
people for his own purposes. A people with the
traditions of the Germans cannot be transformed
into docile sheep. If the Social Democrats had been
a little more nationalistic they could have made their
party the strongest in the country. One Social Demo-
cratic minister of the Reich, Gustav Noske, was a
nationalist. If Otto Braun, the Social Democratic
premier of Prussia, had only been a little cleverer !

Already the Versailles Treaty, from the economic
point of view, was wrong. And the Young Plan was
a consistent development of the very principles under-
lying the Treaty of Peace that were wrong. It was
for that reason that I joined a committee which aimed
to bring about a plebiscite on the question of the
Young Plan before it was adopted. I know that wide

124

I PAID HITLER

circles hold the opinion that this radical agitation
against the Young Plan enabled Hitler to give his
party the necessary impetus to swing it into power.
And I know, too, that in certain French circles the
anti- Young Plan movement was regarded as a renas-
cence of the spirit of revenge, But no thought of
revenge ever occurred to me in this connection. Nor
could it have occurred to me, in view of the declara-
tions made again and again by Hitler at that time.
To-day it has become clear that Hitler was playing
a perfidious game. But in those earlier years he
emphasised constantly that he had given up the idea
of revenge against France. Despite everything he had
written in his book. Mein Kampf (which incidentally
was of no importance then), he repeatedly said this :
** With France there is no longer any conflict. We
want to bury all that. It is absurd always to remind
people of Alsace and Lorraine. Alsace certainly has
a German-speaking population ; but it is conceivable
that one can renounce Alsace-Lorraine on high
political grounds.” (Exactly as Hitler, out of con-
sideration for Italian susceptibility, later on renounced
South Tyrol, which is mainly inhabited by Germans.)

Personally I have always held that a Franco-German
rapprochement was more important than an Anglo-
German one, at least for the pacification of Europe.
England’s traditional policy persistently aimed at
keeping the countries of the European continent on
opposite sides. I was always guided by the idea of
Napoleon, who in my estimation desired — like Charle-
magne — a united Europe. In German history books,
it is true, Napoleon is always represented as one who
wanted to dominate Europe. I, however, believe he
was animated by a higher thought.

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUNG PLAN 1 25

Historical Notes

The Dawes Plan

After the resistance in the Ruhr had collapsed, and
after inflation had caused the complete ruin of German
currency, Chancellor Stresemann obtained the consent of
the Reparations Commission to accept foreign help in
order to rehabilitate the German Reichsbank and the
German currency. Moreover he obtained the promise
that the whole of Germany’s financial obligations would
be converted into another form. In November, 1923, a
commission of experts, headed by an American, Charles G.
Dawes, was set up with the aim of examining Germany’s
situation and of suggesting a new mode of payment. The
result was the so-called “ Dawes Plan,” which was accepted
by the Reich on April i6th, 1924. According to this
plan a foreign gold credit of 800,000,000 marks was
opened for Germany, so as to create a new gold basis for
the Reichsbank, The Reichsbank, thus based on a
secure foundation, was placed under the control of foreign
finance. The foreign loan w^as secured by a mortgage
on the German Railways and on the securities of certain
German industries ; also by a transport tax, and by other
taxes. A permanent foreign control commission, residing
in Berlin, was to supervise Germany’s budgets and the
functioning of the mortgaged enterprises. The Dawes
Plan did not fix the sum of Germany’s total obligation,
and it would indeed have been difficult to agree on any
sum. The Dawes Plan merely decided on the mode of
payment. It was decided that for five years Germany
would have to make annual payments, beginning with
one billion gold marks and gradually increasing to two and
a half billions in the fifth year. If, after 1928, the value
of gold should be either raised or lowered by 10 per cent,
Germany’s obligations were to be re-examined. Each
year Germany’s obligations would be considered as fulfilled
whenever the annual payments were handed to the agent-

126

I PAID HITLER

general of the Reparations Commission in Berlin. His
duty was then to convert the sums paid by Germany into
foreign currencies and distribute them among the Allied
nations. After the Dawes Plan was accepted by an
international conference in London, and after Germany
had adopted the necessary legislation, the Dawes loan was
issued — lOO million dollars in the United States, the rest
in Europe.

The Young Plan

The conditions of the Dawes Plan were fulfilled up to
1928, the first year of the economic world crisis which
greatly affected the German economic situation. Under
a provision of the Dawes agreements Germany was
entitled to request a revision of the Plan. Accordingly,
at Germany’s behest, another committee of experts con-
vened in Paris, in the summer of 1928, again under the
chairmanship of an American, Owen D. Young. He
proposed a new plan, the “ Young Plan,” which was
accepted on August 31st, 1929, at an international con-
ference at The Hague. Germany’s annual payments
were considerably reduced ; but henceforth they were to
be effected entirely in cash. The essential difference
between the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan was that the
latter disregarded the political aspects of the agreements
and heeded only economic necessities. Above all, the
international control of Germany’s budget and the pledges
given by Germany was discontinued. The mortgaged
enterprises were freed and the agent general of the Repara-
tions Commission was replaced by the ‘‘ Bank of Inter-
national Settlements ” in Basle, Switzerland. This bank
was founded by the government banks of all the Allied
nations and the German Reichsbank.

When the Young Plan began to be enforced, a number
of German private banks had to suspend payment because
they were not in a position to fulfil the demands of American

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUN'G PLAN 127

banks for repayment of the loans which had been granted
them. Germany’s economic situation seemed to be so
much worse that further payments of war reparations
were not to be thought of, for the time being. President
Hoover yielded to Germany’s demand and proclaimed a
moratorium for one year, which was accepted by the
other Powers involved. One year later, in 1 932, Chancellor
von Papen, at an international conference in Lausanne,
secured a further concession — namely that Germany’s
obligations were to cease after a final payment of one
billion gold marks.

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the
total sums paid by Germany for war reparations. The
lowest estimate, made outside Germany, amounts to
12,000,000,000 marks whereas the highest German estimate
amounts to 44,000,000,000 marks. The German estimate,
however, comprises not only the actual payments made,
but also the expression in money terms of the cession of
Alsace-Lorraine, Upper Silesia, the German colonies, the
ships, and also the estimated value of German private
property abroad, Germany’s interest in which was for-
feited under the Treaty of Versailles.

CHAPTER FIVE

MY PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL
RELATIONS WITH THE NAZI PARTY

The Support of the Party by Heavy Industry

I DID not become a member of the National
Socialist party until December, 1931. This was
after my collaboration in a great mass meeting in
Harzburg, at which Alfred Hugenberg, as leader
of the German National People’s party, and Hitler,
a? leader of the German National Socialist Labour
party, announced the co-operation of the two parties.
The German National People’s party was the heir
of the old Imperial Conservative party. The German
National Socialist Labour party is, of course, the
official title of the National Socialists, commonly
known as Nazis. That this partnership in principle
did not become a real union, which might long have
survived the appointment of Hitler as chancellor of
the Reich, was probably due more to Hugenberg
than to Hitler. I personally had worked zealously
for the German Nationals, but finally had fallen out
with their leader. Even while I was a member of
the German National party, the National Socialists

128

PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS

129

were congenial to me, I considered them to be
sensible and rational.

As I have already mentioned, I came to know
Adolf Hitler in Munich, when I was still a member
of the German National party. I did not enter into
closer relationship with him until sometime later on,
and even then we never became very intimate.

Rudolf Hess was instrumental in bringing about a
closer personal association between the Nazis and
myself. He came to me sometime during 1928, on
the initiative of old Geheimrat Kirdorf, for many
years the director general of the Rhenish-Westphalian
Coal Syndicate, with whom I was on friendly terms.
Hess explained to me that the Nazis had bought
the Brown House in Munich and had great difficulty
in paying for it. I placed Hess in possession of the
required funds on conditions which, however, he has
never fulfilled. For by no means did I want to make
the Nazis a present ; I merely arranged a foreign
loan for the National Socialist party through the
banks. At that time Hess received the money, which
he was obligated to pay back. But he returned only
a small part of it ; for the rest I myself simply had
to “ acknowledge receipt.”

Geheimrat Kirdorf had been a member of the
National Socialist party long before me. His import-
ance in Germany had always been rather exaggerated.
Even the creation of the Coal Syndicate, which made
his name known far beyond the borders of Germany,
is not to be credited to him alone, but jointly to
him and his colleague, Unkel. But Kirdorf was its
first president, and he always assumed a very domin-
eering manner vis-d-^vis the outside world. As far
back as the time when Kaiser Wilhelm II brought

I PAID HITLER

130

out his first social welfare laws, Kirdorf was aroused
to violent opposition to the emperor. For at bottom
he was a reactionary, although he was by no means
unkind. He simply had the bad habit of making a
quick decision whenever he was in anger. During
his famous quarrel with the Kaiser he named the
little castle in which he lived the “ Battle Yard.’^

Nor did he always remain on good terms with
Hitler, the party’s chief. One day he wrote Hitler
a letter, which he gave me to deliver personally.
He was afraid that otherwise the missive might not
reach its destination, because Hitler’s staff often held
back letters which contained disagreeable matter.
In this letter Kirdorf protested against the persecu-
tions of the Jews which went on in Germany in 1933.
For it happened that Kirdorf was much beholden to
the Jews for the success of his career. In spite of
this he then became the great financial backer of the
Nazis. Also he had renounced his membership in
the state Church — even before the Nazis came to
power. But as he was afraid of death, he allowed
himself to be converted by Mathilde von Ludendorff
(wife of the general) and entered the neo-pagan
church, At the Fountain-head of German Strength,”
which she had founded,

Kirdorf died at the age of almost ninety years, and
I attended his funeral. It was terrible. The coffin
had been set on a Nazi flag, which made a beautiful
effect. But then the Reich minister of economics.
Dr. Walther Funk, made a very tad speech ; it
consisted entirely of flattering tributes to Hitler, who
was present. At the end the Horst Wessel Song was
sung. I left immediately at the end of the ceremony,
Hitler left at the same time. I hid behind a tree.

PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS

I3I

SO he wouldn’t see me. But I was able to sec how
the Fiihrer stood up in his automobile, obviously in
expectation of an ovation from the assembled work-
men. But as nobody was prepared for a demonstra-
tion, this made a painful impression, not to mention
the tastelessness of Hitler’s posture. I was sorry for
old Kirdorf because of this burial ; he deserved a
better one.

Hermann Goering I came to know in the following
manner. One day the son of one of the directors of
my coal mining companies, a certain Herr Tengel-
mann, came to me. Listen to me,” he said, ‘‘ there
exists in Berlin a Herr Goering. He is trying very
hard to do some good for the German people, but he
is finding little encouragement on the part of German
industrialists. Wouldn’t you like to make his
acquaintance ? ” In consequence of this suggestion I
met Goering in due course. He lived in a very small
apartment in those days, and he was anxious to
enlarge it in order to cut a better figure. I paid the
cost of this improvement.

At that time Goering seemed a most agreeable
person. In political matters he was very sensible. I
also came to know his first wife, Karin, who was a
Swedish countess by birth. She was an exceedingly
charming woman and showed no signs of the mental
derangement which clouded her life before she died.
Goering idolised her, and she was the only woman
who was able to guide him — as though he were a
young lion. She also had a great influence on him.
Sometime after her death Goering made his estate,
Karin Hall, into a fantastic memorial to his first wife.

As for Hitler, I saw him again in Munich, at a
meeting concerning the Young Plan. Later I met

138

I PAID HITLER

him occasionally at Goering’s house, but I have never
visited him at Obersalzberg and I have never been
inside the Brown House. On one occasion Hitler,
Hess and Rohm slept at my late father’s house. That
was about the extent of our acquaintance.

But I did in fact bring about the connection
between Hitler and the entire body of Rhenish-
Westphalian industrialists. It' is common knowledge
that on January 27th, 1932 — almost a year before he
seized power — Adolf Hitler made a speech lasting
about two and a half hours before the Industry Club
of Diisseldorf. The speech made a deep impression
on the assembled industrialists, and in consequence of
this a number of large contributions flowed from the
resources of heavy industry into the treasuries of the
National Socialist party.

The preliminaries to this “ historic ” speech are
worth noting. It was not my original intention to
let Hitler speak to this gathering. In fact, no pro-
vision had been made for the delivery of a National
Socialist address. On the contrary, the committee of
the Industry Club had given permission to a Social
Democrat to make a speech, with the result that the
members became greatly excited, and many threatened
to resign. At a very stormy session of the committee
I said there was only one way of making good this
mistake, and that was to invite a National Socialist
to address the assembly as well. This proposal was
adopted.

However, in making it I had certainly not im-
mediately thought of Adolf Hitler, but rather of
Gregor Strasser, as the man to make the speech. For
Strasser was in those days the most popular figure
among the National Socialist representatives in the

PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS

133

Rhineland. He was an educated man, a pharmacist
by profession ; and generally people took him
seriously, despite his National Socialist leanings. That
was because one could argue with Strasser, and because
he made not nearly so disagreeable an impression as,
for instance, Dr. Robert Ley, who at that time
published a paper in Cologne and who is to-day the
head of the German Labour Front. So I asked
Gregor Strasser to make the speech at the Diisseldorf
Club. But shortly after this I accidentally met Adolf
Hitler in Berlin. When I mentioned to him the
projected address before the Diisseldorf Industry Club
he said, “ I think it would be better if I came myself.”

I duly agreed ; and it was actually through this
invitation that Hitler first became properly known in
the Rhineland and in Westphalia. So far as I was
concerned the origin of the invitation had no political
significance. But Hitler, no doubt, immediately saw
the political value of the opportunity which was thus
offered to him.

I have personally given altogether one million marks
to the National Socialist party. Not more. My
contributions have been very much overestimated,
because I have always been rated the richest man in
Germany. But after all, what does it mean to own
factories ? It does not follow that a man has a lot
of cash to spare. In any case, Hitler had other
sources of money besides me. In Munich, for instance,
there was Herr Bruckmann, the well-known printer ;
and in Berlin there was Carl Bechstein, the world-
renowned piano manufacturer, who also contributed
large sums. Aside from this. Hitler did not receive
many subsidies from individual industrialists.

It was during the last years preceding the Nazi

134

I PAID HITLER

seizure of power that the big industrial corporations
began to make their contributions. But they did not
give directly to Hitler ; they gave them to Dr. Alfred
Hugenberg, who placed about one-fifth of the donated
amounts at the disposal of the National Socialist
party. All in all, the amounts given by heavy
industry to the Nazis may be estimated at two million
marks a year. It must be understood, however, that
this includes only the voluntary gifts, and not the
various sums which the industrial enterprises were
obliged to provide for the party’s numerous special
manifestations .

The fact that I never became specially intimate
with Hitler is probably due to the hostility of Rudolf
Hess and Josef Goebbels, the propaganda minister.
Although Hess knew that I had rescued the party
from a great embarrassment arising from the purchase
of the Brown House in Munich, both these men
worked against me. Belonging to the Left Wing of
the party, they were suspicious of me as the
representative of heavy industry ; and I know, too,
that quite a number of other people resented Hitler’s
intercourse with heavy industry.

But Hitler’s relations did not extend to industrialists
in general. In fact, besides old Kirdorf, who was not
really an owner of heavy industrial works, I was the
only one of that ilk who freely exposed himself* in this
connection. The case of Herr Krupp von Bohlen
und Halbach,* head of the famous munition works,
was the reverse of mine. Until Hitler’s seizure of
power, Herr von Krupp was his violent opponent.
As late as the day before President von Hindenburg
appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor he urgently warned

• See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 136.

PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS

135

the old field marshal against such a course. But as
soon as Hitler had the power, Herr von Krupp
became one of his most loyal party adherents. I
am not saying this in order to reflect on Herr von
Krupp in any way. In any case, this would not
minimise my own mistake. And I candidly confess
that I did make a great mistake when I trusted Adolf
Hitler. Only it would be much better if Herr von
Krupp could get himself to confess his mistake as well.

In making this confession I must emphasise again
and again — not as a complete excuse, but by way of
extenuation — that the trouble with the Nazis was not
the party itself but certain individuals in it. That, of
course, is principally the fault of the party chief. He
retained all the leading people within the party,
regardless of their character, and they could do what
they liked. A Gauleiter^ whose functions within the
party organisation roughly correspond to those of
a Regierungsprdsident (county president) within tlie
organisation of the state, is to-day sacrosanct. As
soon as the Gauleiters realised which way the wind
was blowing they started among themselves a sort of
club ; and this club of Gauleiters is what really
governs Germany to-day.

This will be the party’s ruin ; for no country can
flourish under such conditions. In every system, even
under Communism, the Leader must be responsible
for order. In Russia, Stalin manages to keep order
— according to his own particular method, to be sure !

Historical Notes

The Krupp Plants

The Friedrich Krupp Corporation {Aktiengesellschaft) at
Essen has always been Germany’s most famous arsenal.

136

I PAID HITLER

As early as the i86o’s, when it was still a private firm, it
received a subsidy of five million thalers from the Prussian
State. All the artillery used by Prussia during the Danish
war of 1864, the war with Austria of 1866, and the Franco-
Prussian war of 1870-1871, came from the Krupp plants.
After the Franco-Prussian war Krupp’s establishments
grew to such an extent that they occupied entire districts
in the city of Essen, whose rapid growth was mainly due
to the increase in the number of Krupp workers. The
city’s administration fell entirely into the hands of the
Krupp concern. In order to secure a foreign market,
where it had to meet the competition of the French
firm of Schneider-Greuzot, the Krupps employed a
whole army of agents, mostly chosen from the ranks of
former German diplomats and army officers. Krupp’s
agents interfered in Germany’s foreign policy and, as a
consequence of the personal influence exerted by the Krupps
at the Imperial court, Germany’s diplomats were often
at the disposal of Krupp’s agents. This influence in-
creased after old Fredrich Krupp, the founder’s son,
committed suicide. Indeed, Kaiser William II took a
personal interest in bringing about the marriage of the
only daughter of the deceased, and sole heir to the Krupp
fortune, to Herr von Bohlen und Halbach, a hitherto
unimportant member of the foreign office. Herr von
Bohlen und Halbach, who, after his marriage, took the
name of Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, was not suffi-
ciently familiar with the business to manage the enterprise.
He transferred it into a limited company ; all the shares,
however, remained the family’s property and were never
sold in the open market. The administration was en-
trusted to a large board of directors. After the collapse
of the monarchy the Krupp plants diminished their scope
considerably. A large part of the remaining plants were
adapted for the manufacture of peace-time goods. Since
Hitler, however, they have again increased in volume, and are
now many times larger than they were in the Kaiser’s time.

CHAPTER SIX

THE NAZIS’ ROAD TO POWER

A fter December 2 , 1932, a new government
was formed in Germany, with General Kurt
von Schleicher at its head. Schleicher had for many
years occupied one of the most important positions
in the war ministry and was, moreover, the most
intimate adviser of the minister of defence, General
Wilhelm Groner. The latter, originally a citizen of
the state of W tirttemberg, came from the Democratic
camp, Schleicher’s real intention was to put into
practice the main points of the National Socialist
programme without letting Hitler seize the power.
It was notorious, however, that he would have liked to
give a cabinet post to Gregor Strasser, a student of social
politics, who sat in the Reichstag as a National Socialist.

Gregor Strasser was, as I have already indicated,
very well known in the Rhineland. At that particular
time he had several conversations with the leading
industrialists, in which I, however, took no part.
Strasser lived in Franconia, the northern part of
Bavaria ; however, he was not a Franconian but a.
genuine Bavarian, and as such, was particularly
popular in the Rhineland and in Westphalia.

137

138 I paid hitler

Strasser and I maintained outwardly pleasant
relations ; but he did not like me very much. Within
his party he sided with the extreme Left, and he
suspected me on account of my past connection with
the German National party. Consequently, I got no
direct news of his conversations with the other owners
of heavy industry. As to his numerous conversations
with General von Schleicher, all I knew of them was
through the National Socialist party. The party was
very suspicious of these interviews. They were con-
sidered to be treacherous toward Adolf Hitler, and I
openly shared this opinion.

Whether General von Schleicher might eventually
have succeeded in forming a cabinet chiefly by
German Labour — this question can no longer be
answered. His negotiations with Strasser appear to
have been very successful. I was even told that
Schleicher counted on the support of a part of the
Social Democratic labour unions. His aim apparently
was to separate the unions from the parties, which in
the case of the National Socialist party would have had
the natural consequence of splitting the party in two.

At that time I sent Rudolf Hess a copy of the letter
I had addressed to the secretary of a Rhenish industrial
enterprise and in which I expressed the opinion that
the manner in which Strasser worked against Hitler
was contemptible. Hess answered me in a very
cordial letter. It is therefore all the less understand-
able why the National Socialist party did not invite
me to attend the afore-mentioned meetings.

To-day I am of the opinion that it would probably
have been better if Strasser’s negotiations had led to
a successful end. It was mainly Herr Krupp von
Bohlen und Halbach who then advocated a rapproche-

THE NAZIS’ ROAD TO POWER 13^

mnt between Strasser and General Schleicher, No
doubt he was right when he made the attempt, which
I have already mentioned, to persuade old President
von Hindenburg never to appoint Hitler chancellor
of the Reich. I have already said that this enmity to
Hitler on Herr von Krupp’s part vanished as soon
as the former came to power. Indeed, after Hitler
was appointed chancellor, Herr von Krupp became
a super-Nazi. How closely he sided with the National
Socialists was proved to me as late as in 1938. At
that time a meeting of industrialists took place at the
house of Geheimrat Bosch, director general of the
I. G. Farben Industrie, theJargest German chemical
concern. Several of the industrialists present severely
criticised Hitler’s behaviour. The meeting was confi-
dential and several instances of monstrous corruption
within the party were mentioned in particular. Herr
von Krupp rose and said, I cannot bear hearing
those accusations and I am leaving the meeting.”
Similar meetings, incidentally, frequently took place
among industrialists.

In keeping with the social ” character of the policy
which General von Schleicher intended to pursue,
he brought to light the so-called Osthilfe scandals.
The ‘‘ Osthilfe ” (“ Aid to the East,” meaning chiefly
old Prussia) was a large-scale financial measure
to salvage agricultural enterprises. It had been
originated by the Social Democra4:ic government of
Hermann Muller, and was broadened by the Briining
cabinet. It seems that some of the funds of the
Osthilfe had been corruptly used ; however, com-
pared with the gigantic graft that now flourishes
under the National Socialist regime, these sums appear
ridicvilously small. Much excitement arose among

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I PAID HITLER

the large landowners east of the Elbe when a Reichstag
investigating commission was to be appointed. The
excitement increased when General von Schleicher
threatened to make the investigation public, a threat
which resulted in creating a violent resentment against
him — a resentment shared even by President von
Hindenburg.

Herr von Papen took advantage of this situation.
A member of the Reichstag, where he represented the
Catholic Centre party, he was disliked by a great
number of its members on account of his intrigues.
In his youth he had been a cavalry officer on active
duty ; later he married the daughter of a Very
wealthy industrialist of the Saar region. During the
World War of 1914-1918 he was the military attach^
of the German Embassy in Washington. His activity
as military attache has made him notorious through-
out the world. Indeed, one of his associates lost a
brief case in a New York subway which enabled the
United States government to prove that a series of
dangerous acts of sabotage had been directly instigated
by the government of the Reich, and that Papen
himself had played an important part in their execution.

For some reason Herr von Papen had developed an
intense hatred of General Schleicher, whom he
planned to eliminate as a chancellor of the Reich.
His candidate for that post was Adolf Hitler. To
further his plan, Herr von Papen arranged an inter-
view between Hitler^ and the Cologne banker, von
Schroder, a cousin of the well-known London
banker, Baron Schroder. The interview took place
at Cologne, in Herr von Schroder’s banking house.
Rudolf Hess was also present.

I heard of this interview only a long , time after it

THE NAZIS’ ROAD TO POWER I4I

had taken place. It seems that Hess, who at first
opposed my friendship with Goering, did not keep
me informed. Nor had Goering, who perhaps might
have informed me, been consulted in the matter.
In fact, it was always doubtful whether Goering was
party to a secret or not, especially after the Prussian
police ministry had been taken from him. The
present intimate relationship between Hitler and
Goering dates only from the great massacre of June 30,
1934, in which the National Socialist party was
purged of all members objectionable to the regime.

I have the impression that Goering had so large a
part of the responsibility in this massacre that he no
longer dared to oppose the regime. In any case he
was much more independent before it took place.
It seems that he has made himself guilty of so many
crimes on account of his personal jealousies that he
has come entirely into the grip of the Gestapo, who
know too much about him. Ever since then he has
been silent.

It is a well-known fact that Papen was successful in
his intrigues. On January 28, 1933, General von
Schleicher resigned his chancellorship and on
January 30, President von Hindenburg appointed
Adolf Hitler to that office. I was well content with
the turn of events, especially as I had heard that
Alfred Hugenberg (although a German National
deputy) had become a member of the Hitler cabinet
and had taken into the government with him a
number of trusted friends. Besides, Hugenberg had
obtained from Hitler a formal promise, given personally
to Hindenburg, to the effect that for the following
four years nothing would be changed in the com-
position of the cabinet and the distribution of key posts.

142

I PAID HITLER

In any case, I thought at the time that Hitler’s
taking office as chancellor was merely a transitional
stage leading to the reintroduction of the German
monarchy. My opinion rested on the following
grounds. In September, 1932 , 1 had invited a number
of gentlemen to my house in order to enable them to
put their questions to Hitler. Hitler answered all
questions directed to him to the utmost satisfaction
of all present. On that occasion he said in distinct
and unambiguous terms that he was merely a “ peace-
maker to the monarchy.” Directors General Kirdorf
and Vogler and other great industrialists were present.
Hitler’s monarchistic attitude of those days brought
to his party a large following among industrial circles.
I also wish to recall that in the fall of 1932 Goering
paid a whole week’s visit to ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II at
Doom. The fact that Hitler and Goering were in-
vited to dinner by the Grown Prince seems to prove
that the Hohenzollerns themselves had great hopes
during this time. Truth to tell, Goering subsequently
told me that after he and Hitler had left, the Crown
Prince had made several deprecatory remarks in the
presence of his servants, who immediately carried the
information to the Nazis. This, it is said, put an
end to the friendship Hitler had for the Crown
Prince.

But this did not prevent the Crown Prince from
attending, in the spring of 1933, the first of Goering’s
regularly recurrent Opera balls. On the one side of
the tier of boxes sat Goering with his entire staff ;
on the other side, facing them, sat the Crown Prince
— and so ostentatiously that some of the Nazis were
quite vexed. But others were not ; and to the outside
world it indicated that the Hohenzollerns had reason

THE NAZIS’ ROAD TO ROWER

143

to be optimistic about their expectations in the early
days of the Nazi regime.

To-day I am unfortunately forced to admit that I,
too, misjudged the political situation at that time.
But I, at least, can claim that I acted in good faith.

Historical Notes

The political situation was indeed somewhat confused
in 1932. It is true that Schleicher cherished the thought
of setting up a so-called “ social ” (i.e. social welfare)
government. His intention was perhaps to imitate
Mussolini’s Fascist government, at least in essence, if not
in form. His negotiations with Gregor Strasser went very
far. At the same time he actually carried on negotiations
with several representatives of the important labour
unions which, although formally independent, were
closely connected with the Social Democratic party.
So far as the National Socialists were concerned, the
entrance of Gregor Strasser into the cabinet would indeed
have resulted in a split, or at least in a struggle between
Gregor Strasser and Adolf Hitler which could not have
ended otherwise but in a party schism. Indeed, the idea
of the Fiihrcr’s defeat was unthinkable.

The case of the Social Democrats was quite different.
The entry into the cabinet of a few Social Democrats
would not, at the beginning at least, have bound the party
as a whole. The question whether the party should
maintain its independent position, or whether it should
identify itself with the Schleicher government would be
determined by the action of its deputies in the Reichstag,
though it risked having to sacrifice the Socialist members
of the cabinet. Of course, new parties might possibly
have been founded and the Social Democratic party have
suffered a severe loss in votes and prestige.

The decisive turn of events at that time is entirely due
to Herr von Papen. Up to a short while before the events
in question, President von Hindenburg had still refused

144

I PAID HITLER

to trust Hitler. Papen’s intrigues were based primarily
on Schleicher’s threat to make the Osthilfe scandals a
public affair. The Osthilfe was not a purely agrarian
measure ; certain sums had also been given to the indus-
tries. Moreover, several party groups represented in the
Reichstag were attempting to widen considerably the
geographical concept of the “ East.” By and by, enter-
prises in the centre and the south of Germany were also
included in the Aid to the East. Finally it included all
those enterprises that were endangered by the general
economic crisis whose distress was believed to be caused
by the post-war changes, notably the inflation and the
subsequent revaluation of the currency. The measure as
a whole, although it was originally well meant, had even-
tually taken on an aspect which might be called corrupt
by an objective observer. The main “ corrupt ” feature
was the apparent purpose to eliminate all risk inherent
in private enterprise, and to shift the burden of all deficits
to the community. Conscious corruption on the par.t of
the receivers of the subsidies played only a minor role.

The case of the Agrarian Aid {Agrariscfie NothiJfe) looked
quite different. Its original objective was to help out
those landowners who had become indebted, not through
any fault of their own, but as a result of the peculiar
conditions at the time. It was soon discovered that the
larger part of the funds which the Agrarian Aid controlled
had been granted not to the owners of small or medium-
sized estates, but to the big landowners. Indeed, in
several cases landowners not only did not use the funds
granted them to pay off their debts, or improve their
estates, but they spent the money lavishly in Europe’s
fashionable resorts.

General von Schleicher had played an important part
in most of the political intrigues of the past decade. How-
ever, he did not recognise the danger to which he exposed
himself when he made the Osthilfe affair the decisive issue
in his cabinet policy. His real purpose was, of course, to

THE NAZIS’ ROAD TO POWER

145

become popular with the masses and to lay the foundations
for a good start for the Labour cabinet which he intended
to set up.

Herr von Papen saw the situation in quite a different
light. Through his middlemen he was exactly informed
of the game that was being played in the entourage of
President Hindenburg. Shortly before, the great estate
of Neudeck, Hindenburg’s birthplace, had been presented
to the president. The gift was made possible mainly by
contributions of industrialists. Thus — very cleverly — the
president himself had been raised to the rank of a large
landowner, and his son, who at the same time acted as
his aide, succeeded in making him see how difficult it was
to run a new estate and how little profit there was in it.
Thus the president was put into the right frame of mind
for lending a sympathetic ear to the insinuations of the
other large landowners. Although perhaps he did not
oppose the punishment of corrupt acts which had actually
taken place, he was convinced that these were not suffi-
cient cause to interfere with the landholding class as a
whole, and to create distrust among the population with
regard to the ownership of land.

This perhaps would not have been sufficient to deprive
Schleicher of the president’s confidence. It might have
been possible to negotiate and to find agreement by
which the affair would have been either made public
without creating a scandal, or entirely hushed up. Who-
ever knew Schleicher sufficiently well never doubted that
a simple hint from the president would have sufficed to
make him change his course, for he was anxious to keep
his premiership. But this is precisely what Herr von
Papen feared. Trustworthy information relating to the
events immediately preceding Schleicher’s resignation
point to Herr von Papen as the man who insinuated to
the president that Schleicher was preparing a military
revolt against him. It is said, at any rate, that the presi-
dent’s final and sudden decision to suggest resignation to

146

I PAID HITLER

General Schleicher had been provoked by a report,
received during a certain night, that Schleicher had
already concentrated troops in Potsdam, ready to march
on Berlin.

Papen’s hatred of Schleicher was mainly due to the fact
that the latter had played an important part in the over-
throw of the Papen cabinet. It is true that Schleicher,
who hitherto had been accustomed to pulling the wires
from behind the stage, did not now intend to take the
stage himself, as chancellor, right after he had overthrown
Franz von Papen. It happened, however, that he was
left no choice.

Thus it was that General Schleicher was forced to
resign, and two days later Hitler, appointed by President
Ton Hindenburg, took office as chancellor. It is known
that Hitler had made up his mind to obtain the office of
chancellor of the Reich without resorting to a revolu-
tionary act. He wished to follow the legal path until he
was in power. He certainly had always had the intention
of abandoning the legal way as soon as he had received
the desired powers from the Reichstag. Whether he
could have succeeded in his legal conquest of the chancellor-
ship without 1 apen’s help is a matter lor speculation. At
any rate, the prospects of the party at that time were
particularly poor. The National Socialists had suffered
great losses at the last Reichstag elections, held under the
Schleicher government. Moreover, the secession of Gregoj
Strasser and his group would have weakened not only the
party but also the S.A. organisations. It is certain tha
huge expenditures had completely exhausted the Nationa
Socialists’ party funds. This i^ also the reason why Hen
von Papen arranged* the meeting between Adolf Hitle:
and the Cologne banker, von Schroder. The part^
finances, which just at that time were threatening t<
reduce the party to an unbearable position, had to b'
remedied. Its subsequent success in obtaining th
necessary funds was complete.

PART THREE

MY EXPERIENCES WITH HITLER
AND THE NAZI REGIME

CHAPTER ONE

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH
THE NAZIS

Efforts to Organise the Corporative System — My
Nomination as Member of the Reichstag
and of the Prussian Staatsrat

I HAVE never really cared for politics. I did not
want to be a politician, for I believe that in-
dustrialists should keep clear of politics. It is true
that on various occasions I have influenced political
processes ; but this happened either through a
chain of circumstances, as in the case of Hitler’s
speech before the Industry Club of Dusseldorf, or it
concerned purely economic issues, as was the case
in the Ruhr struggle and in the fight against the
Young Plan. At those times I took the leadership
because I enjoyed a certain popularity.

The case of Hermann Rauschning was different.
I knew Rauschning, for he frequently came to the
Ruhr region, and people there generally considered
it fortunate that he was active in the National Socialist
ranks. We were especially glad to know that so
rational a man as Rauschning occupied the very

149

I PAID HITLER

150^

important position of president of the Danzig Senate
when so much depended on the feeling in the League
of Nations.^ But Rauschning told no one in the
Ruhr that his position was in danger. Now that ]
have read his second book, The Voice of Destruction.
I do not understand why he has never mentioned this,
to some people at least. To-day, to be sure, after
having experienced what I did, I am inclined to
think that it would not have made much difference.

My activities on behalf of the National Socialist
party, I imagined, would be of the same incidental
nature as those described above. What interested
me primarily was the way in which economic life
should be organised in the National Socialist state
or — as I advocated — under a collaboration of the
National Socialists and the German Nationalists.
Here was a problem of great importance. For the
question to be decided was whether industry and
economic activity in general should be taken over
by the state ; or if not, what was to be the role of
the state in relation to economic life.

At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth century the generally dominant
idea, derived from Ricardo and Adam Smith, was
that commerce must be entirely unfettered, and that
free trade was fundamentally linked with economic
life. But the Liberals have ‘‘ emptied the baby with
the bath,” with the result that the state, in opposition
to them, has assumed more and more control over
the economic process and has even gone into business
on its own account. In my opinion the results

' Author's Note : The government of the Free City of Danzig
was, until 1939, nominally responsible to the League of Nations,
repoesented by a High Commissioner.

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS 151

achieved by the state as business manager have, on
the whole, been bad. Business is based on private
initiative, which is guided on the one hand by the
risk involved, and on the other by the chances of
profit. The function of the state, however, is to
administer ; and administration is something wholly
different from enterprise under business management..

Even in railway operation, which can certainly not
be left entirely in private hands, the conditions under
state ownership are by no means as brilliant as is.
often publicly assumed. The German railways are
a case in point. So far as my knowledge of French
railways goes, private operation there, despite many
disadvantages, is to be credited with many things
that are more advanced than in Germany. For
instance, France possesses more mechanised freight
stations, and the French shunting system is far more
mechanised than the German. As the result of
government ownership, a certain lack of flexibility
is inherent in our railway operation. There is a
constant lack of sense of responsibility on the part
of higher officials when there is no private owner
who must make decisions at his own risk — something
which an official can never do to the same extent.

A similar situation exists in gas and electric power
companies. Probably the best managed electricity
establishments to-day are those of the Rhenish-West-
phalian Electricity Works. Their management is in
private hands. But here we have an example of an
entirely new form of prganised undertaking, the
initiative for which was taken by the late Hugo
Stinnes. A part of the share capital is in the hands,
of private capitalists and some sizable economic groups^
and a part is owned by the municipalities or communes.

I PAID HITLER

important position of president of the Danzig Senate,
when so much depended on the feeling in the League
of Nations.^ But Rauschning told no one in the
Ruhr that his position was in danger. Now that I
have read his second book, The Voice of Destruction^
I do not understand why he has never mentioned this,
to some people at least. To-day, to be sure, after
having experienced what I did, I am inclined to
think that it would not have made much difference.

At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth century the generally dominant
idea, derived from Ricardo and Adam Smith, was
that commerce must be entirely unfettered, and that
free trade was fundamentally linked with economic
life. But the Liberals have emptied the baby with
the bath,” with the result that the state, in opposition
to them, has assumeci more and more control over
the economic process and has even gone into business
on its own account. In my opinion the results

' Author* s Note : The government of the Free City of Danzig
was, until 1939, nominally responsible to the League of Nations,
represented by a High Commissioner.

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS

Even in railway operation, which can certainly not
be left entirely in private hands, the conditions under
state ownership are by no means as brilliant as is
often publicly assumed. The German railways are
a case in point. So far as my knowledge of French
railways goes, private operation there, despite many
disadvantages, is to be credited with many things
that are more advanced than in Germany. For
instance, France possesses more mechanised freight
stations, and the French shunting system is far more
mechanised than the German. As the result of
government ownership, a certain lack of flexibility
is inherent in our railway operation. There is a
constant lack of sense of responsibility on the part
of higher officials when there is no private owner
who must make decisions at his own risk — something
which an official can never do to the same extent.

A similar situation exists in gas and electric power
companies. Probably the best managed electricity
establishments to-day are those of the Rhenish-West-
phalian Electricity Works. Their management is in
private hands. But here we have an example of an
entirely new form of organised undertaking, the
initiative for which was taken by the late Hugo
Stinnes. A part of the share capital is in the hands,
of private capitalists and some sizable economic groups,
and a part is owned by the municipalities or communes.

152

I PAID HITLER

which take their electric power from these works.
The representatives of the municipalities and com-
munes sit on the board of directors. The result is
that a kind of sparring match takes place between
the private economic, interests on the one hand and
the communal interests of the cities and villages on
the other ; but only when these interests are opposed
to each other. The object is precisely this : to insure
that the private economic interests must not injure
the common weal. The final supervision is, of course,
the business of the government, that is, so long as we
have an economic system in which not absolutely all
private enterprises have been taken over by the state.

That, indeed, is the underlying idea in President
Roosevelt’s New Deal. He wants to harmonise the
private economic interests of the United States with
the common interests of the people as a whole. Just
as the state prevents people from stealing, so it must
make it impossible for private business to exploit and
injure the public.

This, to be sure, sometimes makes it necessary to
prevent the industry from doing things which in the
long run are injurious to itself Let me give only
one example. The construction of the German
Autostrassen (strategic motor highways) caused many
industrialists to build factories for the production of
cement. Here is a case where the state should have
foreseen that this was neither in the interests of busi-
ness in general nor in that of labour. For the con-
struction of even the most gigantic highway system
must some day come to an end, and then there is
nothing to do but to close down all these numerous
cement works in order to prevent a glut in cement.
Here is an extraordinarily difficult problem. For

ATTEMPTS AT GO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS 1 53

once the state itself begins to do business, it is no
longer an unbiased umpire. It has become an entre-
preneur with special interests of its own.

There are, for instance, the Hermann Goering Works,
of which I shall have more to say later on. Being state-
owned they have determined the decisions of the Reich
as umpire in advance and in a very one-sided sense.

As a medium which would reconcile all interests,

I have always imagined a state which recognises the
principle of private industrial profit, but which at
the same time provides a corporative constitution for
the regulation of industry and business. This would
mean the separation of politics and business, and
would give to business, i.e. both private and state-
owned organisations, an autonomous administration
above which stands the state, as moderator in the
struggle of interests and as champion of the common
weal. The creation of a corporative system is neces-
sary also in order to provide a permanent contact
with labour. I, for instance, had much less contact
with my workmen than was the case in my father’s
time, and this, no doubt, is true of all large industrial
employers of this mechanised age.

My father, August Thyssen, who died at a very
advanced age, was wholly absorbed by his work for
the factory which he created, and was a great favourite
with his workmen. Here was a chief who worked
hard and who at the same time had retained his simple
ways of living. Whenever he had a free half-hour
he went to the works and talked with his men. But
this did nothing to change his old-fashioned ideas,
which he upheld to the end. He believed, like Adam
Smith, that the workers’ wages had to be reduced when
prices went down, and when business was bad. But he

154

I PAID HITLER

did not believe this because he wanted to profit at the
expense of his workers, but because he thought that this
was a healthy basis on which to develop his factories and
a good way to enable him to employ iriore labour.

August Thyssen began with a very small factory.
That was in 1873, the year in which I was born.
My birthplace was a modest house near the factory.
The whole property was very small — just sufficient to
accommodate the first workshop. My father managed
the factory, kept the books, functioned as his own
travelling salesman — in short, he did everything himself.
It was much the same as the early days at Krupp’s.

I had not as much time as my father to occupy
myself with the workers, although I watched for every
opportunity that presented itself. But perhaps I
didn’t have my father’s way to talk with the men,
either, and I did not enjoy their confidence in the
same degree. For this reason, if for nothing else, I
wanted to bring about the corporative system — in
order to establish the contact with the elected repre-
sentatives of the workers, who were to sit with the
representatives of the Council of State, in order to
discuss economic problems, wage problems, questions
of .export, and the like. For it was my firm con-
viction that a workman will even accept a wage re-
duction if he is convinced that it is justified. But I
consider it impossible to let work-people participate
in the business. The moment they became joint
owners, a private undertaking would be run like a
government service ; whereas industrial enterprises
must be managed very individually. A business just
cannot be administered like the state.

Naturally it is possible for a manufacturer to explain
to his co-workers why he conducts the business in

ATTEMPTS AT GO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS 1 55

the manner which he considers to be necessary. And the
corporative system ought to provide the means whereby
all broader considerations are taken into account.

The idea of a corporative system is not mine. It
was suggested by a well-known professor of national
economy in Vienna, Othmar Spann. My acquaint-
ance with it was due to the presence in Diisseldorf of
a certain Dr. Klein, who was social welfare secretary
in the 1. G. Farben Industrie (the great German dye
trust). Long before the Nazis came to power Dr.
Klein, under the influence of Professor Spann, was
preoccupied with the solution of the social problem.

The problem of establishing a corporative economy
is of course a very difficult one. Nevertheless, I have
always considered it to be the best solution. There
are only two other solutions : either to manage our
economic life as before — in a reactionary manner, or
to do the opposite — abolish private enterprise and
let industry be run by the state.

After all, one should not forget all that private
enterprise has accomplished in the past century.
The disappearance of this motive force, in the event
of a system of state ownership, would be an enormous
loss. The corporative state, on the other hand,^ is
an attempt to find a middle way — a way which would
allow the owner the liberty which he needs in order
to manage his business successfully, and which would
at the same time avoid excesses.

In the Sudeten region of Bohemia the development
of a corporative system was already fairly well
advanced ; and the system is a characteristic feature
of the Mussolini regime in Italy. In Germany it
was I who was chosen by the National Socialist party
to found an institute charged with the preparation

156

I PAID HITLER

of the introduction of the corporative order. This
was before the party’s seizure of powelr. In reality
Professor Othmar Spann would have been the proper
man for this task, but Spann had completely fallen
out with Hitler, for a very particular cause. Hence
Hitler had appointed me and one other person. We
therefore founded this institute, or academy, in order
to train suitable people. We also organised an experi-
mental Chamber of Corporations which I attended
every day. The aim was eventually to form a per-
manent chamber from among the people who had
passed through the academy.

Then came the seizure of power by the National
Socialists, at the beginning of 1933. At first every-
thing seemed to go on well enough. My institute
and the experimental chamber had gained the sanction
of the Reich minister of economy, Dr. Schmidt, who
was formerly a leading and well-known insurance
director. I had three secretaries. But these secre-
taries were obliged to spend part of their time in
getting people released from prison or from the con-
centration camps. For in those days everyone came
to me to beg for help. And I almost always succeeded
in putting things to rights.

But it soon became clear that the idea of a corpora-
tive system in general, and our institute in particular,
had many opponents. For one thing, many in-
dustrialists were against it because I had been made
its director. And almost the entire government
bureaucracy was against it, as a matter of course.
Within the party a meeting took place in which
Dr. Robert Ley expressed his views. Hitler took a
position opposed to Ley, Opinions clashed violently.
And finally Hitler declared solemnly that everything

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS I57

was to be done as I and my friends had proposed ;
within eight days we were to establish a corporative
system in Germany. In conclusion Hitler remarked,
“ Just as the political movement originated in Munich,
so the economic reform shall originate in Diisseldorf.”

One reason why Hitler was for the corporative order,
it seemed to me, was that he opposed the idea of fusing
the three general federations of labour unions which
existed in Germany into one. What he wanted was
to divide the Labour Front ; and he was right in
seeing the necessity of this. But unfortunately he did
not stick to his ideas.

For a time, it is true, Adolf Hitler seemed to main-
tain his original point of view with regard to the
corporative system, particularly under pressure from
the radical movement within the party. Gregor
Strasser, too, had plans for a sort of corporative
system. But it is possible that it was just Strasser’s
sympathetic attitude toward the corporative idea that
eventually contributed to Hitler’s change of mind — _
that is, after Gregor Strasser’s “ treachery ” (recounted
in the previous chapter). Ley’s prediction was cor-
rect : the workers, he said, do not stand behind
Strasser ; they stand behind Hitler and Ley.

In order to counter Ley’s fight against the corpora-
tive system I entered a complaint with Hitler against
Ley. I told him that in any case Ley was not the right
man for the post which he occupied. Thereupon
Hitler became quite wild and challenged me to prove
it. And I did so ; at least, I thought I had done so.
But nothing happened.

As I have already remarked, I was not close to Hitler
in a general way. Nevertheless, I was able to discuss
the corporative system with him at various times.

158 I PAID HITLER

I was frequently in Berlin, and once we talked about
the subject while I conducted him around one of
my mines. On this occasion, by the way, another
matter came up as well, namely, the encounter which
Hitler had had with Wilhelm Furtw angler, the
orchestral conductor. Hitler told me how he had
sent for Furtwangler and told him he simply could
not keep on playing pieces by Jewish composers. That
was as intolerable as if he. Hitler, were to fall in love
with a pretty Jewess. I had to laugh inwardly. For
actually, whenever Hitler did go near a woman at all,
the woman he ogled would turn out to be a Jewess.

The Nazis not only nominated me a Reichstag
deputy, but Goering, as Prussiari prime minister,
made me Prussian state councillor for life. Besides
Field Marshal von Mackensen and Admiral of the
Fleet von Raeder there were only two or three people
in the party who were state councillors for life. It
was, therefore, supposed to be a special honour. In
the State Council I attended five sessions, which were
not bad. But one day Goering said to me : “ 1 can’t
continue these sessions behind closed doors, as I had
intended, because I have seen the Bishop of Osnabriick,
Monsignor Berning, taking notes.” So, after four further,
sessions everything was changed. There was no more
listening to the motions of members ; henceforth the
worthy* state councillors were treated like pupils who
were being crammed in a course on National Socialism.

Once even Julius Streicher, editor of the anti-
Semitic sheet, J)er Stumer^ was permitted to give a
lecture in this Prussian State Cbuncil. Streicher was
not even a Prussian but a Franconian from Nurem-
berg. He spoke on the law. He related something
* that had happened to him not long ago. He had

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS 1 59

been indicted on that occasion while the republican
government was still in power, and had not been
treated impartially — which I for one am quite willing
to believe. But that can certainly be no reason for
a “ statesman’s ” saying that the law should be
abolished ! However, that was the clear meaning
of his speech. And it is very significant that this
monstrous idea which was being expressed did not
even arouse a discussion.

Soon, however, the State Council was as good as
forgotten, and so was the corporative order. Ley
achieved a complete victory for his point of view.
This was just as well, so far as he is concerned. For
the corporative system would have made impossible
such corruption as that which permeates Ley’s own
creation — the Labour Front.

I was a fool to believe that Adolf Hitler’s intentions
were sincere.

Publishers^ Note

The “ corporative ” system of economy {Standische
Wirtschaftsordmng) is not, as might appear from Thyssen’s
account, an invention of Professor Othmar Spann. What
might be called corporate organisations existed through-
out medieval Europe in connection with various national
economies. It will be recalled that all parliamentary
governments were similar in origin. The reigning princes,
whenever they required large sums of money, summoned
the representatives of the various “ estates,” i.e. social,
economic, and vocational groups (in German, Stdnde)^ in
order to get these money grants voted to themselves, or
appropriated to their use. These estates consisted of {a)
the nobles, {b) the clerics (or representatives of the Church),
and {c) the burghers — the merchants of the towns. The
struggle to get the workmen and peasants recognised as*

l60 I PAID HITLER

a ** Fourth Estate ** is familiar from the history of the
French Revolution.

Thes^ estates were not artificial creations ; they had
developed quite naturally, as the result of economic
activity. The noble landowners, as well as the burghers,
had organised associations among themselves, and the
decisions concurred in by their representatives facilitated
the levying of taxes. Although the Third Estate, that
of the burghers, was first accorded its rightful place
during the French Revolution and in the English parlia-
mentary struggles, the economic powef of the bourgeois,
or citizens’ classes had long before grown far beyond
their political status.

Even the medieval artisans or craftsmen had formed
vocational groups or guilds in accordance with their
various trades. And each of these groups undertook the
regulation of its own trade or craft, in a sort of self-
governing administration.

The influence of this economic autonomy did not, of
course, remain confined to purely economic matters, but
extended to public life, and particularly to public morals.
In general, the tendency of these vocational bodies was to
secure for each member of their trade or craft or pro-
fession as great a degree of comfort as possible. This
became more and more difficult as economy outgrew its
medieval fetters and developed in the direction of free
capitalistic enterprise. The vocational organisations —
guilds and the like — which in the Middle Ages could easily
protect the well-being of the artisan citizens, were even-
tually forced to take measures to prevent unfair com-
petition, both in the sale of the goods produced, as well
as in the labour market. These measures no longer
conformed to the modern way of life which national
economy had developed in the course of centuries.

The bad features of the supercapitalistic system which
has come to flourish since the nineteenth century have
been widely criticised, and attacked by many reformers.

ATTEMPTS AT CO-OPERATION WITH NAZIS l6l

On the one hand there were the socialist groups, who
wanted to transform the capitalistic system into a collective
economy. On the other hand we had the bourgeois
social reformers, who desired a greater degree of social
justice and a fairer division of the national income, while
recognising the right of the capitalist system to exist.
But there was also a third group of people, especially active
in Germany, which strove for the return to a non-
capitalistic economy in which competition was absent —
in other words, a return to the medieval conditions. They
demanded the establishment of a stdndische (i.e. vocational,
or as it came to be internationally known, “ corporative *’)
economic system, which however they were never able to
visualise very clearly. They regarded the economic free-
dom of modern times as the root of all evil, and demanded
a return to a “ tied ” economy (organised in groups).
This, they believed, would produce a type of man who
would be frugal, well-balanced within himself, and of the
strictest honesty.

The nineteenth century advocates of these theories
were the literati of the Romantic School. The most
distinguished of them, undoubtedly, was Adam von
Muller. A part of the Catholic clergy in Germany and
Austria went along with this movement ; and more
recently Othmar Spann, an Austrian professor of national
economy, developed a vocational system within the
framework of his theory of “ economic universalism.”
At the beginning of the National Socialist movement
many party men were avowed adherents of Spann’s idea.

In this connection it may be mentioned that in 1919,
during the German democratic revolution after the World
War collapse, there was an attempt to produce a modernised
system of economic groups, inspired by the soviet system
of the Bolsheviks. At the second Congress of the Work-
men’s and Soldiers’ Councils held in that year, a proposal
was adopted by the votes of delegates of various socialistic
tendencies. This plan provided for a horizontal organisation

I I»AIi> HITLER

162

of all the various' branches of econoouc life. The
directing body of each branch of trade or industry coih
sisted of an equal number of elected employers and
workmen. This elected body had the duty to sec that
each trade or industry was managed so as to achieve the
highest possible production. The governing body of the
trade groups had wide powers of self-government.

The workmen elected to the governing bodies were to
be taken from among the members of the so-called Pro-
duction Councils, chosen within each industrial or business
establishment. (These were independent of the so-called
Works Councils, which were to continue as representatives
of the labour unions, with the task of protecting the social
interests of workers.) The Production Councils had to
try to increase production, in conjunction with the em-
ployers. They were also to advocate such measures
among the workers as would be of i>ermanent value to the
establishment (the basis of the workers’ existence), even if
this meant a temporary sacrifice on the part of the workers.

The plan also projected the establishment of an economic
parliament of the Reich, in which the representations of
all organised branches of industry came together to form
the highest self-governing corporate economic body of the
country. The originators of this economic constitution
(if you will, a synthesis of the socialistic and the traditional
guild system) tried, at the second Congress of Workmen’s
and Soldiers’ Councils, to get it incorporated into the
republican constitution of the Reich. But the Social
Democratic government then in power believed that the
proposal represented a far-reaching concession to the ideas
of Moscow. Only one part of the proposal, namely the
highest economic parliament, was written into the con-
stitution, under the name of Reich Economic Council
{Reichswirtsckaftsrat). Thfa council bad only advisory
powers, as the highest expert body of German econewny ;
but, until the coming to jxwer of the National Socialists^,
it played a considerable r^e.

CHAPTER TWO

NAZI ECONOMY AFTER THE
TRANSITION PERIOD

From Schacht to Funky and the Victory of Nazi
Politicians over Economics Experts

A lthough I had failed in my endeavours to
create a corporative system {Stdndische Wirt-
schaftsordnung) y and thus to put German economy on
a sound basis, I did not at first give up all hope for
a rational economic leadership. The State Coimcil
seemed to function quite well at the beginning, and
Franz von Papen, who remained vice-chancellor until
I934> made a few quite sensible speeches, I was
especially favourably impressed by the great speech
he made at Marburg, toward the end of 1933. He
seemed to endeavour to strengthen the influence of
the conservative elements which he had brought into
power along with Hitler.

I congratulated him on his speech, and I had the
impression that he himself believed he had accom-
plished much by delivering it. Many interpreted it
at the time as a warning to the National Socialists
not to misuse their power.

163

164

I PAID HITLER

However, I soon realised that a group of National
Socialists, with Goebbels and Ley at their head, were
in disagreement with Herr von Papen. Minister of
Propaganda Goebbels even prevented the speech from
being made known to large sections of the public.
Perhaps it was this that made many people think
that all this had been prearranged between Papen
and Goebbels. This would mean that Papen wanted
to lull German business into a sense of security by
making his speech, on the assumption that only those
present at Marburg would ever get to know it. In
this case he would have had to have knowledge of
the plan to keep his speech from the broad masses
of the people and from the large number of minor
business men. However great a scoundrel Herr von
Papen may be, I cannot believe that from the very
beginning he should have based everything on deceit.

What with the experience I have now acquired, I
have come to the conviction that politics and business
ought to be pursued by two entirely different sets of
people. Indeed, the two things are radically different.
It is true that Bismarck demanded that a politician
should be honest, thus inferring that a politician can
be honest. Whether this be possible, I don’t know.
Yet one thing I do know : that business people are
much more likely to tell each other the truth than
politicians are. I recollect that, in the course of the
conferences of the International Steel Cartel, we
always told all the truth to our French, Belgian, and
English colleagues. Thus we succeeded in distri-
buting among us the international spheres of influence
in a manner satisfactory to all parties.

The National Socialists never had a real economic
plan. Some of them were entirely reactionary ; some

NAZI ECONOMY AFTER TRANSITION PERIOD 1 65

of them advocated a corporative system ; others
represented the viewpoint of the extreme Left. In
my opinion, Hitler failed because he thought it very
clever to agree with everybody’s opinion.

As will be shown in the following chapter, the
present nature of National Socialist economy has
necessarily led to war. As will be shown later on, it
will also lead German economy to complete bankruptcy.

Hitler had an unprecedented opportunity, such
as no man will ever again be offered so easily, to
create something entirely new. However, besides the
fact that he knows absolutely nothing about matters
economic, he cannot even fully understand his eco-
nomic advisers. He is impulsive and always follows
his last impressions, but he is not energetic. His
constant worry has ever been to keep himself in power.
In addition to this, he believes that he alone is a
great man, and all others nonentities.

What we witness to-day in German politics, as well
as in German economy, is a manifestation of the
Prussian spirit. It miglit be objected that Hitler is
not a Prussian, but an Austrian. The only answer
to this is that his entourage is entirely Prussian, and
Prussian in the worst possible sense. Indeed, his
entourage, which is always near him, consists mainly
of corporals. It takes a good deal of knowledge of
Prussian history to know what the idea of a Prussian
corporal really implies. It means the transfer of the
barrack-yard into the fields of politics and economics.
Whenever new recruits came to a barrack they used
to begin their new career by being flogged, by way
of enlightenment as to the meaning of military dis-
cipline and the respect they owed to those who were
doing their second term of military service. This is

i66

I PAID HITLER

not necessarily the expression of particular brutality,
but rather the continuation of a tradition handed
down from the days when the Prussian army consisted
not of natives of the country, but of hired soldiers,
to whom respect had to be taught right from the start.

Thus the whole population is being oppressed by
means of terror, even if they have not been guilty of
anything. People must be taught what awaits them
if ever they should take any liberties ! This is why
no one in Germany dares to criticise anything.

In the early days of the regime, a Supreme Eco-
nomic Council was created. If at least we had
succeeded in keeping it alive, a considerable number
of influential industrialists might have stated their
opinions without restraint in the council ; and per-
haps it would after all have been more difficult to
act contrary to their opinion, without further ado.
But the Supreme Council held but a single session ;
it was never called together again.

The administration of Germany’s economy was
subsequently distributed among the different national
vocational groups [ReichsstUnde ) . These vocational
and economic groups exert a great influence. How-
ever, they are under the leadership of men who are
either National Socialists, or entirely subservient to
National Socialists. At the head of the National
Industrialists’ Group is Herr Krupp von Bohlen und
Halbach. I have already said how well the latter
plays the part of a super-Nazi. Among the higher
officials of the group of industrialists there also was,
for some time, Geheimrat Kastl, who had been one
of the leading men of the former National Association
of German Industries. Kastl was formerly a Jew.
He suffered many vexations on this account, but to-

NAZI ECONOMY AFTER TRANSITION PERIOD 167

day he is again a much-respected lawyer in Munich.
Indeed, everything is possible with the Nazis. They
are capable of calling back to-morrow the Jews whom
they ousted only yesterday.

Goering himself once told me about the great
quarrel he had on account of one of his collaborators,
who, it was said, was of Jewish origin. He was none
other than the present head of the Air Force, General
Milch. Goering told me that he had invited to his
house all those who had started the quarrel ; that
he had addressed them in an impetuous speech, and
that he had declared at the end, “ I myself decide
who is a Jew, or who is not, and that’s all there is
to it.” But, despite this dictum, the fact remains
that Milch has Jewish blood. However, it was simply
stated that his mother, who was not Jewish, had
conceived him out of wedlock. This is typical of the
way in which things are being settled in Germany
when no other way out is left. Thanks to a mother’s
alleged adultery, the world is presented with one more
100 per cent Aryan.

Despite my small fondness for politics, I have
attempted on many occasions, at the beginning of
the regime, to intervene politically whenever I thought
it necessary. However, a single industrialist can really
do nothing in Germany. An eminent man once told
me he was surprised that nothing had happened to
me as yet, although I expressed my opinions so often.
Another influential personality, who has made several
attempts to protest against the regime (and in
dangerous circumstances), told me confidentially that
he always carried , poison with him. This man did
not wish, as he put it, to inflict the National Socialist
regime with the guilt of murdering him in his old

i68

I PAID HITLER

age. In a word, conditions in Germany have become
the same as in Russia. As the GPU rules in Russia,
so the Gestapo rules in Germany.

It is a dangerous game, the game that is being
played by Himmler, the supreme head of the Gestapo,
and next to him by Heydrich, who makes a practice
of operating in the dark, although his official power
is very great. It has come to the point when even
Hitler is afraid of the Gestapo. Those scoundrels
know how to turn this to their profit. They constantly
tell him that they must protect him, and they protect
him so well that he is almost their prisoner. Indeed,
Hitler is not at all what he seems to be. He is not a
daredevil like Goering ; he constantly fears for his
own security. What the Gestapo does in order to

protect him,” as they put it, is beyond all imagination.

Hjalmar Schacht, even while as president of the
German Reichsbank and minister of economics he
was still exerting a relatively great influence, was by
no means the man who could put German economy
on a safe basis. Indeed, he is not an economist, but
a financial technician. Consequently he has not only
tolerated the substitution of barter trade for normal
export methods, but for propaganda purposes he has
announced it to be a great achievement. And yet
export is one of Germany’s great needs.

My father, August Thyssen, spent his whole life
working with the purpose of finding and preserving
export markets for his enterprises. And I fully agree
with him that the maintenance of a sufficient German
export trade would be the only sound basis for the
country’s well-being. The limitation of the export
markets to the south-east of Europe is based on dubious
foundations that have little to do with commercial

NAZI ECONOMY AFTER TRANSITION PERIOD 1 69

considerations. The slogan that eighty million people
“ need space ” is entirely beside the point. It corre-
sponds to the idea of the Roman legionaries when they
wanted to be rewarded for their services with lands
in the conquered territories. A nation of eighty
million people needs export trade to be able to live
on the soil where it is settled. But it needs no new
space, as in the times of the great migrations.

Not even all of the things which Dr. Schacht did in
the financial field were well done. When all is said
and done, he has taken from the German people the
last of their savings. It was he who invented those
false bills of exchange with which armament manu-
facturers were paid, bills which their banks were
forced to accept. The banks gave those bills to the
Reichsbank when they needed money themselves in
order to pay their clients. The Reichsbank’s authority
to discount them represented the only true value of
the bills. What will happen to the depositors of
savings banks after this war no one knows. The only
possible solution I can see is to deal separately with
those whose savings do not exceed 10,000 marks.
For the rest, certainly nothing will be left.

Infinitely worse than Dr. Schacht is his successor as
president of the Reichsbank and minister of economics.
Dr. Funk, a former journalist employed by the
Berliner Borsenzeitung, He is a blind partisan of
National Socialism and pursues an entirely reactionary
economic policy.

On the day Dr. Schacht was virtually dismissed
from his post, a meeting of the Central Administrative
Board of the Reichsbank took place. I was invited by
Dr. Funk to attend. At first I did not desire to go, but
then I thought that the session might in some respects

170

I PAID HITLER

be entertaining. My first thought after I had decided
to attend the meeting was to say something in praise of
Dr. Schacht. Many newspaper reporters were present,
and a series of panegyrics were addressed to Dr. Funk.
No one wasted a single word on Schacht. At last I
also thought it was wiser to restrain myself.

The meeting was not followed by the simple
Bier abend or ‘‘ beer ' evening/’ which was traditional
after meetings of the Central Administrative Board of
the Reichsbank so long as Dr. Schacht was in office,
but by a phenomenal dinner with champagne and all
kinds of delicacies. After dinner was over, Dr. Funk
asked me what I thought of his new financial methods.
What he had done was to replace the payment in
advance by means of Dr. Schacht’s false bills with a
new method, according to which the arms manu-
facturers received only official acknowledgments for
the receipt of their goods, after the goods were
delivered. These certificates of delivery could be
used only with great difficulty. I told Dr. Funk that
all this was merely a plaster which, in my opinion,
could not stick for a long time. Except for this I
kept silent and sat down in a distant corner. Soon,
however, numerous gentlemen came over to my table
to hear my opinion. I said nothing and let them talk.

On this occasion I could observe how all the
industrialists and bankers present at the meeting had
changed sides. A gentleman who had particularly
praised Dr. Funk on this occasion approached me
later, in order to have a talk with me. I discovered a
complete lack of character. Formerly all those who
knew anything about busine^ used to say, “ As long
as Dr. S^acht is there, there is hope.” Now all this
was forgotten.

CHAPTER THREE

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY

The Road to National Bankruptcy

H itler and the Nazi leaders boast that they
have freed the German people from misery by
ebuilding its econo.my and by creating work for all.
Vhen Hitler came to power, Germany had six to
even million unemployed. There was a terrible
:conomic crisis, and it was necessary to stop a move-
nent that would have led Germany into frightful
nisery — economic and moral.

But the so-called economic recovery of the Nazi
■egime is but a blind. In truth. Hitler has created
lo wealth. He has exhausted all the resources of
jrermany. He has squandered the taxes and stolen
Be savings of the people. The entire economic
itructure of the regime iS crumbling to-day under the
itrain of war. In truth. Hitler resorted to war because
le realised, despite his ignorance, that before long
lis economic methods would lead to inflation and the
:otal ruin of the country.

I was a close observer of all the efforts the Nazis
naade in the field of economics. Never have I had

I'7I

172

I PAID HITLER

the impression that the leaders had a plan, nor even
that they were animated by a cautious opportunism
looking to the rebuilding of German economy. On
the contrary, it was obvious that they sought to
obtain immediate results for propaganda purposes.
Their ideas were sometimes grandiose, but almost
always incoherent.

In fact, all the economic ideas of the regime went
no further than the building of motor highways,
sumptuous architectural projects, and rearmament.

Why did Hitler, as soon as he came to power, make
up his mind to build a network of gigantic highways ?
There were few automobiles in Germany, and in any
case the existing roads were sufficient in almost all
parts of the country. I suggested at the time that all
German railways should be electrified. This would
have created business for the mechanical industries
and employed many thousands of skilled workers.
Besides, the economic advantage of the enterprise
was indisputable.

But Hitler, without ever admitting it, is inspired
by Napoleon’s example. This turns his mind towards
such projects as the replanning and transformation of
cities like Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. He desires
people to speak of “ Adolf Hitler’s Highways ” as they
speak of Napoleon’s roads. These highways are cer-
tainly important in facilitating rapid long-distance
communication. Some of them are splendid roads
for tourists. Others even satisfy economic needs. But
the network constructed or projected in the course of
the pre-war years cannot seriously be justified.
Travellers who have driven over the German high-
ways before the war have had an opportunity to
notice that they were more than adequate for the

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY

173

volume of automobile traffic. With a few exceptions
it would have been less expensive to rebuild the then
existing network of roads. This would probably have
cost one or two billion marks, instead of the eight
billion that have been spent for Adolf Hitler’s
Highways.”

The first highway built was a tourists’ road from
Munich to the Austrian frontier. This was the “ road
of the Fuhrer ” — built specially for him. Then the
highway from Berlin to Munich was built, in great
haste. The engineer in charge of the construction,
anxious to court the Fiihrer’s favour, was impatient
to see him proceed directly from his estate in the
Bavarian Alps to Berlin, without leaving the new
highway. But far less impatience was shown in the
construction of the highway that was to link the
industrial cities of the Ruhr, or the arterial road from
Hamburg to Berlin. Indeed, even military needs
were neglected. For instance, there are no highways
west of the Rhine. A road to Aix-la-Chapelle had
only just been begun when the war broke out. On
the other hand, the military leaders have always been
sceptical about the military value of highways. They
are broad stripes that run through the landscape in a
straight line ; and thus may guide enemy aviation
much better than capriciously winding rivers and
streams. Moreover they are extremely vulnerable to
air raids on account of the innumerable artful con-
structions along the way. A single bridge, if destroyed,
can obstruct the road for hundreds of miles, because
the points of communication with the rest of the
system are rare and often badly devised.

In the building of highways, as in everything he
does. Hitler did not proceed accordmg to a plan. He

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I PAID HITLER

wanted to create immediately something that would
appeal to the public’s imagination.

The construction of highways was obviously one of
his hobbies. He announced his programme as early
as May ist, 1933, on the occasion of the first National
Socialist Labour Day, adding that he would crush
all opposition to it. Two months later he forced the
government to begin work. Those among the sup-
porters of the party who were penniless and starving
immediately began to object in secret. “ They build
roads for the rich,” they said, “ it’s the rich who own
the cars. Workers will never benefit by highways.”
In fact, the highways have been useful mainly to
party leaders, who are all owners of luxurious cars,
acquired by the means described in a subsequent
chapter.

In order to allay discontent. Hitler conceived of a
new idea. Every German shall own his car. He
asked industry to devise a popular car model to be
built at such a low price that millions could buy it.
The Volkswagen (People’s Car) has been talked of for
the past five years and has never been seen on the
market. “ These cars will be built for the new high-
ways,” said the party propagandists ; “an ei\tire
family will be able to ride in one of them at 100 kilo-
metres (60 miles) an hour. It is the Fiihrer’s Car
for the Fuhrer’s Roads.” The party leaders say that
the highways were built for the People’s Gar. But
the People’s Car is one of the most bizarre ideas
the Nazis ever had. Germany is not the United
States. Wages are low. Petrol is expensive. German
workers never dreamed of buying a car. They cannot
afford the upkeep ; to them it is a luxury. If the
Nazis’ pretentious dreams had come true, where

NAZI Q1TACK ECONOMY

nmtd millions of gallons of petrel have been taken
ro*n ?

However, the People’s Gar has never seen daylight.
)r. Ley had pocketed several million marks’ worth oF
idvance subscriptions when the war came — and now,
here is more important business than manufacturing
he People’s Car.

Hitler is totally ignorant of economics. He lets
limself be taken in by notions which he thinks he
mderstands and which do not make the slightest
ense. One day, the great “ economist ” of the
)arty, Bernard Koehler, grandiloquently pronounced
n his presence the slogan that “ labour is capital.”
This signifies absolutely nothing. Yet Hitler has
epeated this nonsense, variously j>araphrased, in at
east twenty speeches. An unfortunate consequence
vas that the slogan was put into practice and people
n Germany began to do just anything, since “ labour
s capital ! ”

One day Dr. Schacht, weary of all the futile and
:ostly agitation of the party economists, declared
publicly that it was absurd from the economic stand-
point to build pyramids in order to occupy the
jnemployed. Everybody understood what he meant.
Through his utterance he attacked the building erf"
lighways which cost billions, but which official
jropaganda proclaimed every day to be the future
.uonument to the imperishable glory of the Fiihrer
and the regime. With the same words Dr. Schacht
denounced the building mania which possessed all
Nazi leaders, from Hitler down to the smallest burgo-
master.

His criticism created a sensation. Hitler felt
personally attacked, and in his May Day speech he

176 I PAID HITLER

cried : The men who, seversd thousands of years

ago, imposed upon their people the task of building
pyramids knew well what they wanted. By accomplish-
ing that gigantic monument, they wrote four thousand
years of history.’’ This was a paraphrase in Nazi
style of Bonaparte’s address to the soldiers of the
Egyptian army : ‘‘ From the heights of the pyramids
forty centuries look down upon you.” But Hitler
takes himself to be a Pharaoh. His grotesque
utterance gives the measure of his understanding in
matters economic.

All those redundant formulae of the type “ labour
is capital ” have contributed to the ruin of German
economy. As they were ceaselessly repeated, people
who might have been considered to be sensible have
ended up by believing them too. During a trip to
Brazil, even Ambassador Ritter said to me : Labour

is capital.” I was dumbfounded, for he had been
for years the head of the economic section of the
ministry of foreign affairs. How could he endorse
such nonsense ?

The effect of such empty phrases proved disastrous.
Everybody began to build, in order to do some-
thing. In Diisseldorf three high Nazi officials had
each their own project : the one wanted to build a
large assembly hall accommodating twenty thousand
people ; the other desired a city hall ; the third, a
theatre. Of the three projects, the building of a city
hall was the most sensible, as it was justified to a
certain extent. Hitler decided the matter. He
ordered a theatre to be built. Ten million marks in
excess of the city budget had to be found. The Nazis
have reproached the Socialists of the Weimar Republic
with squandering money in building swimming pools

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY 1 77

and health insurance offices. How modest were the
Social Democrats, compared with their successors !

Hitler is constantly afraid of not seeing things in
large enough proportions. Pyramids, Napoleonic
roads, Roman roads are an obsession with him. He
plans his highways for centuries to come. At Nurem-
berg he builds a congress auditorium to hold several
hundred thousand people. He tears down half Berlin
to reconstruct it. . Money does not count. And
unhappy Dr. Schacht had to torture his brain to find
a way of financing these unproductive projects. After
exhausting himself in protesting he eventually resigned
his office. Yet he must bear part of the responsibility.
It was he, indeed, who at the beginning of the new
regime showed the Nazis how to use credit. No
doubt he desired to remain within reasonable limits.
But Hitler, seeing that ‘‘ credit could be created ’’
— according to Dr. Schacht’s incautious formula —
never wanted to halt his course.

One of Hitler’s most incredible projects is the
construction of a giant bridge in Hamburg. He has
seen photographs of the George Washington Bridge in
New York and dreams of having just as imposing a
structure in Germany. One day, accompanied by a
large staff of Nazi dignitaries, he walked along the
banks of the Elbe. Suddenly he stopped and declared,
‘‘ Here the bridge shall be built ! ” The project was
submitted to experts. It would have necessitated the
building of an immense suspension bridge with
foundations about one thousand feet deep, because of
the bad terrain. Moreover, the bridge would have
obstructed the port. Military experts declared that if
it should collapse, under an air bombardment, for
instance, the consequences would be disastrous. The

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cost woiild have exceeded one billion marks. But the
Fiihrer had made up his mind, and, of course, he can
never err. If war had not intervened, this absurd
structure would have been begun. No one has dared
submit the only reasonable solution imposed by
necessity. To join the two banks of the Elbe, a tunnel
should be dug ; it would be less costly, without
involving the disadvantages of a bridge. The Nazis,
however, dislike underground construction, probably
because there they cannot be seen.

The pet enterprise of the regime was the famous
Four- Year Plan. I have always wondered why it was
called a ‘‘ plan.’’ Government regulation of commerce
and industry in Germany had led to total state control ;
Hitler picked up the Russian idea of the Five-Year Plan.
Yet the difference is considerable. The Russians desired
to create large-scale industrial production in a country
where it was as yet non-existent. Hitler’s Four-Year
Plan, on the contrary, had no aim except its demago-
gical effect. All the incoherent enterprises that fall
under the head of the so-called Four- Year Plan are
as little the fruit of a logical concept and a precon-
ceived plan as the highways, the People’s Gar, or the
pyramids against which Dr. Schacht protested. When
Hitler announced the Four-Year Plan at Nuremberg,
German industrialists were greatly surprised. He had
consulted nobody and no one knew what he meant.

Highways, uniforms, rearmament, large-scale build-
ing enterprises, and the leaders’ luxury caused vast
expenditures. German exports did not suffice to
afford the import of the necessary supplies. German
exports decreased. They did not bring in sufficient
foreign exchange to provide food for the German
people and raw materials for industry.

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179

** This shall not embarrass us/^ Hitler said to him-
:lf. Germany shall produce all she needs. She has
dentists, technicians, and inventors. Germany will be
cplored in its depths. It is a question of will power,
itelligence, and energy. The National Socialist regime
ill overcome all difficulties.’’ And he commissioned
roering with the carrying out of the plan.

Goering knows nothing about economic problems,
[e is the first to admit it. But he has recipes which
e thinks infallible. The first of these is to order,
bering says, “ Build a factory that produces a
undred thousand tons of gas per year ! ” And the
LCtory must be built. Suddenly he declares, “ Pro-
uction must be doubled ! ” And he thinks that it
enough to will in order to succeed.

His great idea was to make Germany independent
f the outside world with regard to iron ore. There
re only a few iron mines in Germany, and their ore
1 of inferior quality. Almost all the ore needed for
le metal industries has to be imported from abroad.
)ne day the Nazi experts declared, “ There is plenty
f iron ore in Germany. But the industrialists do
ot want to mine it.” Indeed, the experts pretended
3 have discovered considerable deposits at Salzgitter,
t the foot of the Harz Mountains, others in the state
f Baden and various other places I cannot recall.
LS a matter of fact, all those deposits were known.
?hc best known of them is the one at Salzgitter..
?he ore is rather rich, but it contains large quantities
f silicon. To be suitable for profitable mining, iron
re must be magnetic ore. It has to be crushed and
lie iron particles are extracted by means of an electro-
riagnet. But Salzgitter ore is not magnetic. Gondi-
ions there are not the same as in Lorraine, where

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I PAID HITLER

both silicon and calcium iron ores are found, both
being mixed in the blast furnaces.

Industrialists, of course, had long known about the
Salzgitter ore. It belonged to the Prussian state, and
the state had sold it during the previous year. Sud-
denly Goering became interested in it again, and
miracles had to be performed. An American engineer
was consulted. He declared that it was a splendid
affair and that a large factory had to be built. A
party representative, one Pleiger, began to attack
industry, which, he said, had not been willing to
do anything. To-day he is the director general of the
Hermann Goering Works. For this is the name given
to the new enterprise.

After consulting the party men, Goering gave the
order to build at Salzgitter the largest metal works
in the world. The engineer was to carry out the
order. His business was building factories. To him
it meant a good piece of business. The German
metallurgists had not been consulted — no doubt
because they knew too much. Now, however, they
were invited to take part in the enterprise, so they
decided to intervene. They told Goering that they
thought that the ore was no good, but they neverthe-
less agreed to exploit it. If the engineer’s statements
were correct, they said, they would build blast fur-
naces and a metal plant at Salzgitter. This would
have cost about half a billion marks. The most
imptortant industrialists joined to draw up a memor-
andum which they intended to address to Goering.
The latter knew of this intention. At the moment
when the memorandum was to be signed, he sent a
telegram to two of the firms concerned and let them
know that he considered all opposition to his project

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY

l8l

(and consequently the signing of the memorandum)
to be an attempt at sabotage against Germany’s
iron supply, which was an act of treason. In these
conditions it was natural that nobody signed.
The factory was built with the participation of the
main metallurgical enterprises of Germany ; Krupp,
Klockner, the United Steel Works, Mannesmann, etc.
There was no way out. Goering had given the
order.

This, however, did not prevent the enterprise from
turning out a complete failure. The Salzgitter ore
cannot be used in its pure state. It must be mixed
with Swedish ore according to a formula, which calls
for very little native ore and as much Swedish ore
as possible.

Uncounted sums of money were spent on the
building of the Hermann Goering Works. The best
possible equipment was ordered from the United
States. Workers’ settlements and railroads were con-
structed ; canals will probably have to be dug. In
the meantime, the factory does not work.

Metal industry is above all a matter of transporta-
tion. Its raw materials are heavy and unwieldy,
and so is the finished product. The ideal site for a
metal works is in the neighbourhood of both a coal
mine and an iron mine. Before building a new
factory my father always used to study the transporta-
tion problem with utmost care. The blast furnaces
and steel mills of the Ruhr are located in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of the coal mines, and the ore
is brought to them either by river or by canal. Simi-
larly, the processing works must be near the places
where iron and steel are produced.

In the light of these logical principles, corroborated

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I PAID HITLER

by experience, the Salzgitter works are an absurdity.
They are located right in the centre of Germany.
No coal is near them. There is some ore, to be true,
but it cannot be utilised in its pure state. Conse-
quently, all the coal and the ores needed for mixing
have to be brought from distant places, and the pig
iron has to be sent to the industrial regions. It will
never be p>ossible to make such a set-up function
properly.

There you have one of the greatest achievements
of the Four-Year Plan. Under the pretext of making
Germany independent of foreign iron ore, they have
set up a factory which cannot function and which is
forced nevertheless to use imported ore. Such con-
siderations do not stop the Nazis, however. One of
the motives alleged for the construction of the Salz-
gitter works was to provide Germany with iron in
case of war. Yet the blast furnaces of the Ruhr
have not nearly exhausted their capacity. The Ruhr
furnaces will have to be kept cold in order to keep
Salzgitter producing — and needlessly hauling its coal
and its products to and fro. Workers will also have
to be found and taken away from other occupations.
It is a tissue of nonsense.

One day, Goering declared : “ Copper ? Why,
we have plenty of copper in Germany. For years
we have imported it ; consequently, we have con-
siderable stocks.’^

This is the kind of reasoning that guides the leader
of German economy. It is true, no doubt, that there
are thousands of tons of copper in Germany. But
they are being used. After the war broke out, Goer-
ing confiscated all copper utensils that were not
essential. This, however, represents very little. The

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY

183

copper is in the machines, in the factories, in electric
wires, etc., and to recapture it, all the electrical
plants of Germany would have to be demolished.
This is childish. These people have as primitive
notions of technology and economy as the aborigines
of Australia. The simple working man is more
intelligent in such matters than these “ leaders.”

Not a single blunder was avoided. At Diisseldorf
there lived a swindler who pretended he could make
gold. Everybody knew he was a dishonest quack.
But he knew the proprietor of the famous hotel at
Godesberg where the Fiihrer decided to kill Rohm
and where he later received Mr. Neville Chamber-
lain. Dreesen is the hotel-keeper’s name ; and Dreesen,
who knows all the party dignitaries, told them about
the gold maker. So one day Diisseldorf received the
visit of Herr Wilhelm Keppler, the personal technical
adviser of the Fiihrer ; he came with three experts
in order to study this extraordinary phenomenon.

An industrialist and mine owner had a chemist
who one day submitted to him a report proving that
an edible fat which could replace butter could be
derived from coal. The industrialist in question is
on excellent terms with Goering. The basis of this
friendship is worthy of being related. There was in
Diisseldorf a kind of painter of a rather bohemian
type who used to hunt: with a falcon. The industrialist
introduced this man to Goering, who decided imme-
diately that this form of hunting, which was practised
by the mediaeval knights, should be revived. This
industrialist, then, went to see Goering and talked
to him of the miraculous project of getting butter
out of coal. “ At last,” he said, “ we have found the
way to fill the largest hole in our food supply,” I

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I PAID HITLER

should insert here that Germany is obliged to import
about half of the edible fats she needs. Goering
ordered the installation of a large laboratory in order
to study the possibilities of making butter with coal.
It seems that the laboratory succeeded in extracting
a kind of rather solid grease. It is even said that
experiments were made on the inmates of the Ploet-
zensee prison near Berlin. All the prisoners who had
eaten their bread with coal butter speedily fell ill
with a scurvy-like malady.

Speaking of butter, Goering has just made another
discovery worthy of his genius. German farmers
use a certain quantity of milk in feeding their live-
stock. It is indispensable to the young animals.

By skimming the milk, Goering said to himself,
additional butter can be produced from the cream.
Humans drink skimmed milk, after all. Putting this
brilliant idea into practice as soon as it was con-
ceived, Goering ordered all calves to be given skimmed
milk. This episode probably had the same dinoue-
merit for the calves as for the prisoners of Ploetzensee.

The Four- Year Plan provides for the exploitation
of all Germany’s natural resources. One day the
Nazis of Goering’s economic staff discovered the
Rhine gold. It is true there are some barely percept-
ible traces of gold in the sand of the river. Upon
the Nibelungs’ — and Richard Wagner’s — testimony it
was asserted that this gold was being exploited in the
Middle Ages, or by the prehistoric Germans. The
Nazi experts proceeded to wash the sand of the
Rhine. The result, of course, was nil.

Another story of the same kind, but much more
annoying so far as the metal industries are concerned,
was the report of a geologist who pretended that the

NAZI QUACK ECONOMY 1 85

sands of the Baltic Sea contained large quantities of
iron. It may be true that there are traces of iron in
the sand of the sea. Goering had the question studied
with great seriousness and sent us a long memorandum
with a request for our opinions. He imagined no
doubt that the sea was going to wash Swedish ore to
the German shores without its being loaded on board
ships.

The Nazis go about trumpeting to the world every-
thing that they think is a discovery. They have made
much more ado about the so-called new raw materials
invented under the Four-Year Plan. Ingeniously, they
have called them neue Werkstoffe — new production
materials — so as to avoid the word Ersatz which has
had so bad a sound ever since the last war. Actually
they have found several useful substitutes. The use
of aluminium and light metals (alloys based on
magnesium) has been extended. The use of artificial
resins has been broadened. What they have done,
on the whole, is to make a virtue of necessity, rather
than invent.

All this, however, does not interest heavy industry.
The only two products that present a certain interest
are artificial rubber and wool. As for rubber, chemists
have obtained rather satisfactory results so far as
quality is concerned. But the price of production
exceeds the price of the natural product to such an
extent that it will be a long time before it can be
produced on a rational economic basis.

As for cellulose fabrics, the matter is different.
The board of German chemical industries have per-
suaded Goering that to chemists everything is possible.
Thus they have produced a fibrous material to which
they manage to give the appearance of sheep wool.

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I PAID HITLER

This pseudo-wool has, however, two defects. It is
not solid, and consequently, no matter how low the
price may be, it is too expensive. And, above all,
it is not warm. The hair of a sheep is, like all hair,
a tube. It seems that it is chiefly the canal in this
tube that makes wool a bad conductor of heat. In
spite of their dexterity, the chemists of the I.G. Farben
concern have not yet been able to poke holes through
their fibres of cellulose. Nevertheless, large factories
have been built all over Germany for converting
tree trunks into wool. The timber has to be im-
ported, but this does not seem to matter. Goering
declares that it is less expensive than to import the
wool. At the beginning of the regime, I drew atten-
tion to the fact that it was unwise to clothe everybody
in uniform. It increased to an unjustifiable extent
the need for wool. To-day even army uniforms
contain a large percentage of artificial wool. During
the winter of 1937 it was impossible in my native
town of Muhlheim to find woollen underwear for
the working population. In order to put the chemists’
ideas into practice, the regime has not hesitated to
ruin the entire German cloth industry.

In everything incoherence is manifest. The United
Steel Works have built a large distillation plant in
order to produce artificial gas from coal. The plant
was finished and production was to begin. We ex-
pected to receive Goering’s congratulations. Far from
it ! One day we were ordered to transform the entire
plant. The factory which had been built to distil
coal was to be adapted to the distillation of raw oil.
The reason for this is a story in itself. A new oil well
had just been discovered, the yield of which was
greater than that which previous drillings in Germany

NAZI qUACK ECONOMY 1 87

had produced. On this ground the men of Berlin
imagined that they were going to discover oil-fields
comparable to those in Texas ! This is why Goering
suddenly desired the transformation of our plant,
applying a kind of reasoning that is absolutely typical
of him. Once he had said, “ There is oil in our
country ; we have but to seek and we shall find.^*
And the moment a new well, no matter how mediocre,
is found, his imagination immediately pictures quanti-
ties of oil gushing from Germany’s soil.

The same thing happened with regard to the pro-
duction of synthetic gasoline. Goering decided that
it had to be raised to five million tons. It was said
that in this case money was no object ; the govern-
ment would provide, all the needed credits. In fact,
all there was to do was build new plants and extend
the old ones. No doubt they were right, but to produce
one ton of gas requires ten tons of coal. Consequently
it would be necessary to raise the output of the coal
mines accordingly. But in Berlin they had not thought
that far.

Goering is an army man. He imagines that it is
enough to give orders for industry to carry them out.
If the industrialists declare that it is impossible, they
are accused of sabotage. Soon Germany will not be
any different from Bolshevik Russia ; the heads of
enterprises who do not fulfil the conditions which
the ‘‘ Plan ” prescribes will be accused of treason
against the German people, and shot.

The United Steel Works owned a small shipyard
at Emden; One day Hitler issued orders to transform
the yard into a large naval construction plant. We
answered that we lacked the funds. Immediately we
were given twenty-four million marks. This was two

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I PAID HITLER

years before the war. Hitler had suddenly decided
to build a large navy.

Taken as a whole, these Nazi achievements are a
farrago of economic absurdities. For seven years I
had to struggle with all these ignorant and incapable
men. It is a waste of time to discuss their stupid
projects or refute their specious arguments. In fact,
the Nazi regime has ruined German industry. All
the above-mentioned experiments with artificial pro-
ducts will become useless as soon as international
trade is restored. Then Germany will have on her
hands immense plants which have swallowed billions
of marks and there will be nothing to do but turn
them over to the wreckers. Industries which no
longer have enough money to follow technical progress
and to keep their equipment up-to-date are in an
unfavourable position compared with foreign com-
petition, especially in America.

I have not attempted to describe the theory of the
Nazi economic system. It would be truer to say that
the Nazis have no economic system. They have
resorted — ^in this field, as in most other fields — to all
the expedients that happened to come into their
heads, with the idea of building up in record time
the formidable armaments with which they have
attacked the world in order to escape bankruptcy.
They have deliberately sacrificed peace-time economy
to war production. The great problem for German
industry after the war, will be to re-adapt itself to
normal production so as to be -able to export and to
feed the workers. If this cannot be done, there will
not be six or seven million imemployed, as there were
when Nazism came to power, but fifteen million.

CHAPTER POUR

ADOLF HITLER HAS FAILED

The All-Powerful Gestapo — The Cases of
General Fritsch and General Brauchitsch

W ITH Adolf Hitler everything is propaganda.

National Socialist Germany has evolved en-
tirely new methods of propaganda, and has used
them with great effect and with a profound knowledge
of mass psychology. Yet Hitler despises the common
people. He has no sympathy for the working man,
and is entirely devoid of any social sense. What he
does, he does not for the people but for publicity.
His “ social ” policy, therefore, is fundamentally false.

Hitler even started this war for the sake of propa-
ganda. I and many others have taken great pains
to keep Germany at peace. But to-day nobody, not
even the generals, dare dissent. The Nazi terror
imposes a fatal silence on all.

Hitler believed, at first, that neither England nor
France would take any action regarding the invasion
of Poland. It is true that, despite the consternation
caused by Hitler’s shocking breach of faith after
Munich, some people in England still believed that
peace could be maintained. They placed particular trust,
it seems, in Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, be-
cause he was a member of the Oxford Group and, by

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I PAID HnXER

190

implication, a pacifist. Even so, Hitler would probably
not have dared attack if Winston Churchill, then an
ordinary member of Parliament, had not publicly
revealed the incompleteness of British armaments in
the air. It is on such motives as this that Germany’s
decisions are based.

It is, in any case, difficult for any foreigner to
understand Adolf Hitler’s character. Sometimes, in-
deed, his intelligence is astonishing. This peasant’s
son (for such, at least he pretends to be) often exhibits
miraculous pK)Iitical intuition, devoid of all moral
sense, but extraordinarily precise. Even in a very
complex situation he discerns what is possible, and
what is not. It is hard to believe that the scion of an
Austrian peasant family should be endowed with so much
intelligence. One is less puzzled, perhaps, when one
discovers an important gap in Hitler’s ancestral line.

According to the published records. Hitler’s grand-
mother had an illegitimate son, and this son was
to become the father of Germany’s present leader.
But an inquiry once ordered by the late Austrian
chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, yielded some interest-
ing results, owing to the fact that the dossiers of the
police department of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy
were remarkably complete. According to these
records, the Fiihrer’s grandmother became pregnant
during her employment as a servant in a Viennese
family. For this reason she was sent back to her
home in the country. And the family in which the
unfortunate country girl (afterwards Frau Schickcl-
gruber) was serving, was none other than that of
Baron Rothschild. This circumstance throws a new
light on the story. The Rothschilds, who in the
course of a century had risen from nothing to the

ADOLF HITLER HAS FAILED

I9I

position of one of Europe’s great families, certainly did
not lack a prescient intelligence — at least not in business!
And it is this very type of intelligence that Hitler has
been shown to possess in politics. Moreover, this pre-
sumed Jewish ancestry of Hitler might also give us a
psycho-analytical explanation of his anti-Semitism. By
persecuting the Jews, the psycho-analysts would say.
Hitler is trying to cleanse himself of his Jewish ‘‘ taint.”

However this may be, Dollfuss prepared a document
in which all these facts were established. After his
assassination his successor. Dr. Schuschnigg, took
possession of the document. Through his spies Hitler
was informed of this compromising inquiry. When he
asked the Austrian chancellor to come to Berchtes-
gaden, in February, 1938, he intended to get pos-
session of the document. In order to get hold of it,
he began by ordering the arrest of Countess Fugger,
Chancellor Schuschnigg’s friend, who later — after he
, was taken prisoner by the Gestapo — became his wife.
The compromising document was then given to Baron
von Kctteler, the secretary of the Fiihrer’s ambassador
in Vienna j Herr von Papen. It is quite possible that
Papen took care to have the incriminating papers photo-
graphed before having them carried to Berlin by Kctteler.
It is clear that in these circumstances the unfortunate
Schuschnigg, faced by his terrible adversary at Berchtes-
gaden, was deprived of his one weapon against him —
the threat to publish the Dollfuss document which would
have revealed Hitler’s true origin to the world.

Incidentally, a copy of the document in question
is said to be now in the hands of the British Secret
Service. At any rate, it may be presumed that the
assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss was connected
with his inquiry into Hitler’s genealogy.

I PAID HITLER

Such details, which would fit admirably into a
mystery story, explain many of the Nazis’ foreign
policy moves. Hitler’s domestic policy, however, can
be largely interpreted in the light of his relations to
the SA, Because he did not succeed in disbanding,
at the right moment, this Brown militia, which
clamoured for the common reward of proper mer-
cenaries (such as the legionaries of ancient Rome),
Hitler was never able to achieve a well-ordered body
politic. The Storm Troopers always maintained that
it was their great merit to have demonstrated with
Hitler in front of the Feldherrnhalle at Munich.
This they considered a great deed of heroism. The
situation eventually culminated in the June massacres of
1 934. In these “ purges Hitler was obliged to order the
murder of Rohm, the organiser of the SA, because he
feared a conflict with the army to be imminent. After
Rohm’s death the leadership of the SA was taken over
by one Herr Lutze, a grossly stupid person, certainly no
“ leader ” for these gangs, over whom he had no control.

Strangely enough, the army took no further action
once it had got rid of its chief enemy, Rohm. The
generals considered his elimination to be sufficient,
and eventually became the faithful servants of the
National Socialists. Only old General von Mackensen
tried at first to protest. Now, however, his son is
married to the daughter of the former German
minister of foreign affairs, the present “ protector ”
.of Bohemia-Moravia, Baron von Neurath. Old
General von Mackensen has been presented with an
estate by the Reich. That the Mackensen family
should thus accept gifts from Hitler as though they
came from the emperor, is more than strange.
Mackensen, by the way, persisted in his opinion that

ADOLF HITLER HAS FAILED

193

he received the present as a reward for his services
in the first World War.

Certain high officers have probably also been
bought. The following story, for instance, is told
about General von Brauchitsch. The general, who
was over fifty years of age, had fallen in love with
a young lady and wished to marry her. For this
purpose he had to be divorced, but his first wife
demanded an extremely high settlement for her con-
sent. The general did not possess the means of
satisfying her demands, for — in contrast to the party
— corruption in the army is still unknown. The
Brauchitsch story was reported to Adolf Hitler, who
is always eager to be informed of all kinds of personal
affairs. It was he who gave General von Brauchitsch
the needed sum. This episode is quite typical of
Hitler’s character. He misses no opportunity of
buying important people, or their conscience.

General von Fritsch’s affair is also a good sample
of the peculiar methods used by the Hitler regime.
Fritsch was known to be one of the most efficient
officers in the German army, and was backed by a
great number of high officers. Fritsch was to be
“ liquidated.” To achieve this, it is said, the head
of the Gestapo personally reproached him with
practising homo-sexuality. Fritsch, who denied this
from the very start, was ordered to call at the chan-
cellery of the Reich, where he was to be unmasked
in the presence of the Supreme Leader. There he
was confronted with a young man who was supposed
to be the chief witness for the prosecution. This young
man had actually had relations with a gendeman called
Fritsch, but he had to admit that it was not the general.

Nevertheless the Gestapo persisted for a long time

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I PAID HITLER

in asserting that the man in question was really
General von Fritsch. To rehabilitate him, a court-
martial was summoned under Gocring’s chairman-
ship. Here Goering had an opportunity to win over
the entire army, simply by a few reasonable words.
He did not say them, however, and ever since then
his relations with the army have been strained.

It seems certain that General von Fritsch has
subsequently committed suicide. I can at least say
that whatever the actual circumstances of his death
may have been, he was anxious to die. This had
nothing to do, however, with the above-mentioned
affair, after which he was completely rehabilitated.
It was because, to his utter grief, he eventually had
to witness the entire army’s submission to Hitler.
He had never been a sincere follower of Hitler, like,
for instance. General von Reichenau. Fritsch always
advocated an alliance with Russia, though not with
a Communist Russia. Attempts were made to establish
relations between Fritsch and the Russian generalissimo,
Tuchachevsky. The two had one point in common :
each desired to overthrow the dictator in his own country.

Fritsch, moreover, was one of those generals who
opposed an attack on Belgium and Holland, and it
is he who must definitely be credited with preventing
Germany from occupying these countries before the
actual outbreak of war. Incidentally, even the
National Socialist General von Reichenau op>posed
this plan. Fritsch was in despair when the attack
on Poland began. He had always opposed it.

Hider owes it to Himmler that a final solution of
the SA question was reached. Himmler had created
the black-clad SS organisations, and with their help
he ruthlessly carried out the execution of thousands

ADOLF HITLER HAS FAILED

195

of SA men in June, 1934. Now Himmler is the most
powerful man in National Socialist Germany. Indeed,
he holds much more power than Goering himself.
He is everywhere and dominates everything.

Himmler has his own personal circle of industrialists.
Director General Vogler, among others, belongs to this
circle. Everybody in Germany is literally spying to find
out who holds the greatest power at the moment, so as
to become as close an ally of the powerful one as possible.

Himmler has strongly developed inclinations for
Germanic research. He sponsored the search for the
ashes of the ancient Saxon King, Henry I (the
“ Fowler ”). These remains were interred at a great
ceremony to which crowds of pyeople were invited,
among them also some leaders of industry. One of
those present gave me the following account of it.

At night, by the light of torches and flames,
a strange procession moved in the direction of
the cathedral of Quedlinburg. Heinrich Himmler
marched at the head, followed by the general staff
of the SS, wearing their “ Death Helmets,” and
industrialists in long coats. The whole thing seemed
to be an imitation of the ceremonies performed by
the' Catholic Church, when a sacred relic has been
discovered. They descended into the crypt, where
ofiicers of the SS stood guard before an open coffin.
The participants in the procession stood at a respect-
ful distance. Himmler alone proceeded to the coffin of
the royal protagonist of his race. The chief of the parad-
ing SS troops, who had supervised the excavations, made
a report. “ I herewith present to you,” he said, “ within
this cofiin, the mortal remains of Henry the Fowler.”

Heinrich Himmler examined the bones and declared
them to be authentic. In National Socialist Germany

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I PAID HITLER

the decision of the chief of the Gestapo is naturally
infallible, even in such matters as this. So the coffin
was shut, sealed, and solemnly buried in the crypt.

It is perhaps not unimportant to remind the reader
that Herr Himmler and his aide, Herr Heydrich,
who has already been described, are more than any-
one else responsible for the crimes committed in
Germany’s concentration camps. It is sad, indeed,
that so many great industrialists court the favour of
the strongest, even when he is an executioner.

Let me mention incidentally that Alfred Rosenberg
is less interested in the earthly remains of mediaeval
Saxon kings than in the remains of Scandinavians in
Germany. Herr Rosenberg, the author of the book
entitled The Myth of the Twentieth Century, is the repre-
sentative of National Socialist Germany’s education
and culture. He is not really a German ; he was
educated at Russian universities and belonged to
Latvian student societies. However, he is one of the
super-Aryans of the National Socialist Reich.

Shortly before the outbreak of the war I was invited
to Pomerania. There I heard to my surprise that
excavations were in progress in the neighbourhood.
In fact, the excavations had just met with success.
Bones of Scandinavians were found. This “ proved ’*
Rosenberg’s old theory that the Prussian province of
Pomerania has always been purely Aryan. I expressed
my astonishment, for so far as I knew Pomerania was
settled by Slavs. But this well-known fact signifiesnothing
to-day, for Rosenberg wilk it differently. All these
excavations are, of course, childish ; yet in Germany
there is method even in the most absurd childishness.

All this might perhaps be overlooked if politics
were practised as methodically. But whoever thinks

ADOLF HITLER HAS FAILED

197

that this is being done has an entirely wrong con-
ception of the country. There is no such thing as
an administration with its centre in Berlin. As regards
internal order, Hitler has achieved exactly nothing.
He thought it was very smart to build up a govern-
mental system in which all the powers cancel each
other out. Alongside the mayor of a city there always
sits a party functionary known as a Kreisleiter (district
leader). And so it is with every important post. If
the two men who have been put side by side agree
with each other, the situation is tolerable ; if not, there
is perpetual strife, which of course is harmful to the entire
government structure. These conditions are entirely
imknown to the public ; yet they are pernicious.

Indeed, this mutual cancelling out of forces is
noticeable in all fields. Theoretically, for instance,
the owner of a factory is also its manager ; yet a
representative of the Labour Front is put alongside
of him, and unless he is bribed he constantly interferes.

The first National Socialist minister of economy.
Dr. Schmidt, who had previously been one of the
most esteemed insurance directors, and who later
on was dismissed by the National Socialists, has given
me several particulars on the subject. According to
him, it is sometimes the minister of economy who
governs, and sometimes someone else. The central
power no longer fimctions at all. For two years the
German cabinet has not met. No directions are given
anywhere. The only institution that exists to-day in
Germany, in the place of order, is a colossal system
of corruption. Examples of the technique and the
new methods of this unparalleled corruption, as 1
came to know them through personal experience,
will be given in the following chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE

NAZI ORGANISED GRAFT

The Exploitation of the State

T A THEN the National Socialist party came to power
W in 1933, its leaders were poor. Hitler lived
an ascetic life in his modest house at Berchtesgaden.
He used almost all the proceeds of his literary labours
to finance his political activity. The party was
burdened with debts. Its cash had been exhausted
by the financing of the electoral campaign of 1932.

To-day, however, “ the Party governs the State.*’
It no longer has debts. Everywhere, palaces are being
built in its name. Even its small-time leaders have
become millionaires. Goering owns about half a
dozen castles in Germany and a villa in Switzerland.
In 1933 he had nothing but debts. Goebbels has a
sumptuous home, which formerly belonged to a
Jewish banker, on the island of Schwanenwerder near
Berlin. Himmler owns a villa in Berlin and has
bought a large estate in Bavaria. Ribbentrop is the
only one who was not poor, since he had married
the daughter of the rich German champagne manu-
facturer Henckel. Nevertheless he has become a

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199

thief. After the assassination of my nephew, von
Remnitz, in the concentration camp of Dachau, he
took over his castle at Fuschl near Salzburg ; and
he even had the impudence to invite Count Ciano,
the Italian minister of foreign affairs, to his stolen home.

In the lower party ranks, the picture is the same.
The Gauleiters and the delegates of the Labour
Front have their seats on the boards of directors of
the great industrial corporations. Albert Forster, the
young Gauleiter of Danzig, arrived in that ancient
city without a penny in his pockets. To-day, he is
a landowner of great wealth.

Where are the times when National Socialism fought
against the ‘‘ rottenness of the Weimar system ’’ ?
The party then demanded a thousand-mark limit to
the salaries of state officials. In all mass meetings
Goebbels exposed the corruption of the political
Bonzen (moguls) holding government posts. A former
Social Democratic minister, attacked by Goebbels
and accused of having grown rich at the expense of
the state, was obliged to explain that the modest
house in which he lived near Berlin had been built
by a low-priced building and loan society, to wliich
he continued to pay annuities.

In those days of the distant past the National Socialists
presented themselves to the public as the champions of
virtue and disinterestedness. As soon as they held the
power, they raised graft to the status of a state institution.

Ever since 1933 there has been no regular public
accounting in Germany. The budgets of the Reich,
of the individual states, of the municipalities, of the
party, and of party organisations are secret and un-
controllable. How' Germany’s public finances are
being handled I shall explain later on.

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I PAID HITLER

Aside from public finance, there is a multitude of special
funds that are fed by the public without its knowledge.
Those funds are at the disposal of some party leader who
can draw from them without accounting for his drafts.
The methods used are of various kinds. In the end,
however, it is the German people who always pay for
the luxuries of all their satraps, great and small.

To every^one his due. Goering, field marshal and
prime minister of Prussia, incarnates the corruption
of the regime. He practises graft on a scale com-
mensurate with government operations rather than
private or business deals. Goering is the sovereign of
Prussia ; he administers its state domains (the former
crown properties). The Prussian state grants him
free disposal over its lands for his own personal use.
He distributes those lands as compensations for
services rendered to him. Old President von Hinden-
burg did not disdain to accept a castle and several
thousand hectares of lands and forests from the hands
of Goering, whom he had just made a general. This
looked like a gift of gratitude. But the old field
marshal, and, above all his son, Oscar, land-greedy
like all Junkers, considered this quite normal, as
though Goering had been king of Prussia. Field
Marshal von Mackensen, who was then over eighty,
was gratified with a more modest domain. This also
came from Goering as a gift in the name of the state
of Prussia. Yet Mackensen far from approved of all
the acts of the present rulers of Germany, toward
whom his attitude was definitely cool — especially after
the religious persecutions which have taken place.

But Goering is generous especially to himself. He
accumulates various public salaries ; he receives a
field marshaPs pay, a salary as president of the

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201

Reichstag, another as minister for air, and another as
prime minister of Prussia. I mention only in passing
his titles of Great Master of the Forests and Chief
Huntsman of the Reich and of Prussia : in connection
with these, too, Goering is not the man to refuse a
monthly salary. The revenues he derives from his
public functions certainly exceed two million marks
a year, paid out of the budgets of the Reich and the
state of Prussia. Where is the thousand-mark limit to
which the Nazis once promised to reduce the monthly
salaries of all state officials and public administrators?

But Goering is not content with merely depleting
the budget by his salaries. As prime minister he is
virtually proprietor of the Prussian state. Hitler
boasts of having unified Germany and suppressed the
old federated states. But so far as Goering is con-r
cerned, the Prussian state certainly does continue to
exist. It is the domain which he exploits, and never
has any king of Prussia lived on his subjects as
magnificently as the field marshal ! Whatever belongs
to Prussia belongs to him. He made himself a present
— for his private use — of several thousand hectares of
wooded lands in the beautiful forest of Schorfheide
north of Berlin. This forms a superb natural park,
where Goering breeds elks and aurochs. I shall not
speak of the hunting personnel, which is extravagant.
The gamekeepers of course are state officials ; for
Goering, differing from the kings of Prussia, maintains
no royal household out of his own pocket. In these
magnificent surroundings he has built his mansion of
Karin Hall. Sans Souci, in comparison, is but a hut,
although Frederick the Great spent the whole of his
reign embellishing it.

Goering owns another palace in Berlin. After the

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I PAID HITLER

Reichstag fire he left the house of the president of the
Reichstag where he had lived until then. No doubt
the atmosphere no longer agreed with him.^ A new
residence has been built for him in the gardens of the
old Prussian House of Lords, next to the new Air
Ministry. A whole section of Berlin at the very
centre of the city forms a regular ‘‘ Goering City,’*
with his private palace, the Herrenhaus^ the House of
Aviators, and the impressive building of the Air
Ministry, completed, in 1935.

Being the second most important man in Germany,
Goering felt he owed it to himself to own, like the Fiihrer,
a villa in the Bavarian Alps. The prime minister of
Bavaria, knowing his desire, offered him land at Ober-
salzberg, facing the Fiihrer’s property. Goering’s pub-
lic revenues, however important, would not suffice to
finance all these luxuries. Several years after his coming
to power he continued to have debts, and the personal
intervention of Hitler was necessary to make him pay up.

Goering also receives bribes. He was made com-
missioner of the Four-Year Plan and the economic
dictator of Germany. The industrialists are anxious
to remain on good terms with him. They offer him
gifts on such occasions as his marriage or his birthday.
The latter, inevitably, returns every year ; and this
is the date for which the generosity of donors is
organised long in advance. Several months before
the day the head of such-and-such an industrial
organisation receives suggestions for a gift in cash or
in kind. An emissary of Goering’s comes to inform
him discreedy that a certain picture, a statue, or an
ancient tapestry would please the field marshal. The

^ Author* t Note : It was established at the Reichsug fire trial
that a subterranean passage connected this buildins with the Reich-
stag, through which incendiary materials could have oeen transported.

NAZI ORGANISED GRAFT

203

location of the object in question and the address of the
antiquary is given on this occasion. Sometimes the anti-
quary himself comes to see the chosen victim. This vic-
tim cannot evade the honour done him. The antiquary
and Goering always manage to arrange a good bargain.

The prime minister of Prussia owns several
collections of paintings. Some of the pictures come
from the various Prussian state museums. One day
a picture was taken from the Cologne Museum.
When its director asked for explanations, it was
declared that the picture was to be exchanged in Paris
for a tapestry. The tapestry should at least have been
sent to the museum ; but the reply to the director’s
questions was, “ Don’t worry, it is at Goering’s.”

I, too, have the satisfaction of also having contri-
buted in a modest way to the enhancement of the field
marshal’s picture gallery ; for he has had taken away
the paintings that belonged to me at my home at Miihl-
heim, and those belonging to my children in Bavaria.

But Goering, amidst this artistic luxury, does not
forget that the Fiihrer is the father of his wealth.
When visitors come to see him at his Berlin residence
he shows them, with great feeling, a small water
colour representing a ruined village in the north of
France. This is a personal gift from the Ftihrer, who
painted it during the first World War. Goering affects to
hold it above a Flemish primitive or an Italian master.

He also displays other picturesque traits of character.
He likes jewds. He used to have an agent, the well-
known Jewish jeweller Fnedlaender in Berlin. It was
even said that he owed him a large sum of money. After
Jews had been expelled from German business, Goering
became the proprietor of the Friedlaender jewellery firm.

Goering does not stick to any particular method Ox

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I PAID HITLER

satisfying his luxurious tastes — or, rather, he uses all
methods. He disposes of the Prussian state revenues,
he accepts bribes from industry, he takes advantage of
confiscations — all is grist to his mill.

Next to him. Hitler is a model of virtue. When he
became chancellor of the Reich he renounced the
usual salary with a noble gesture. Never had his
predecessors, Stresemann or Dr. Briining, done as
much ! I do not know whether this gesture has been
followed through. Nevertheless, Hitler is the richest
man in Germany. It is true that he has not grown
rich on public revenues. His whole fortune is due to
his pen. Indeed, Hitler is a man of letters. He is,
if not the most read, at least the most purchased, of
all men of letters in the world. Mein Kampf has
reached a sale of seven or eight million copies. By a
decision of the Reich ministry of the interior this
book is distributed at the cost of the municipalities
to all newly-wed couples. And marriages have
increased a great deal in Germany since Hitler’s rule,
although the Fiihrer himself has remained a bachelor.

Hitler holds most of the stock in the party publish-
ing house — Franz Eher, of Munich, Berlin, and Vienna.
Franz Eher publishes the Volkischer Beobachter and all
the party periodicals. These official party papers are
widely circulated. For all officials and notables, and
for all those who depend more or less on public
authority, a subscription is morally obligatory ; it is a
proof of loyalty toward the regime. Party officials
solicit subscriptions from door to door, through the
country and in the towns. It is difficult to refuse.
The Volkischer Beobachter, the most widely read Nazi
daily, has succeeded in monopolising all the advertise-
ments that once appeared in the organs of business

NAZI ORGANISED GRAFT

205

and industry. All this is very profitable. Herr Hitler,
man of letters, publisher, owner of several papers,
earns several million marks yearly in his own right,
as has just been shown. He can, therefore, renounce
the salary due to him as chancellor. Besides, he also
receives the emoluments of the president of the Reich.

It is true that his needs are modest. He does not
care for good food, he neither smokes nor drinks, and
he has no mistress. Briining, the ascetic, at least
smoked cigars. But Hitler, like Goering, has a weak-
ness for paintings. In truth, as he likes to say, if he
had not entered politics he would have devoted his
life to painting. Sometimes he buys pictures by the
Old Masters with his own money, but above all he
accepts gifts. Cities and states have offered him
several museum pieces. Numerous also are those
private citizens who wish to prove their gratitude or
their admiration to the Fiihrer. But Hitler does not
go himself to the art dealers, as Goering does. He
uses his photographer, Hoffmann, as an intermediary.
The latter is the only official photographer authorised
by Hitler and his regime. This monopoly brings him
a fortune. But he does not consider it beneath his
dignity to earn commissions on works of art. His
method is about the same as people who serve Goering,
with the difference that it costs the victim even more.
An art dealer of reputation will go to one of his best
customers and address him somewhat as follows : “ I
now have a certain picture for sale. I know that our
beloved Fiihrer would like it very much. Wouldn’t
you like to make him a gift of it ? ” Everybody knows
what this means, and the suggestion is complied witli.

But it also happens that Hitler presents a painting
to someone to whom he wishes to do a favour. One

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I PAID HITLER

day he sent to Dr. Hjalmar Schacht a painting by the
classic German genre painter Spitzweg, in a superb
frame. Schacht noticed immediately that it was a
vulgar copy of a. well-known original. Thinking that
the Fuhrer had been deceived, he sent the painting
back to him saying it was a copy. Infuriated, Hitler
declared, “ This copy is an original ! ” After all,
why not, since the axiom of the regime is “ the Fuhrer
is always right ” ? Several months later visitors still
could see in Schacht’s drawing-room an empty frame
with asmall note in the owner’s hand : “This frame con-
tained a copy from Spitzweg presented by the Fuhrer.”

Poor Schacht ! He used to control the finances of
the regime, but never was able to obtain a correct
account from its masters. I do not think that one
can find in any modem state procedures similar to
those current in Germany for financing irregular
expenses. The party has its private army. I do not
refer to the Storm Troopers — the S.A. — ^for since the
purging of Rohm they have been reduced to the
second rank. The local sections live at the expense
of the central party funds, or on the proceeds of their
lootings, especially after the confiscation of Jewish
property. But the SS, Himmler’s Black militia, who
serve as a Praetorian Guard for Hitler and the
grandees of the regime, have their own means of
existence. In this particular case graft plays' an
important political rdle. It is Walter Darr^, minister
of agriculture, who finances Himmler and his SS.
In return, Himmler and the Gestapo support Darr<
against his enemies. This accounts for the fact that
he still retains his position, despite his insignificance

One may well ask, whence come these funds?
The answer is simple. In the early years of the

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207

regime Darrc established a so-called domestic price
control, in order to protect German agriculture. The
aim of this measure is, according to Darre, to
encourage farmers to grow all that the German people
need. This undertaking is absurd, but it plays an
important part in Nazi phraseology. It plunged
Germany into a food crisis long before the present
war and reduced it to the use of ration cards. In
peacetime, and even now in wartime, despite very
severe restrictions, Germany is obliged to import part
of the produce necessary for its maintenance. In the
course of the past few years these imports have
amounted to about a billion and a half marks per
annum. Purchases abroad are made for the account
of the Reichsndhr stands the National Food Corporation,
directed by Darr^ in his quality of Reich minister
and chief of the farmers’ organisation, which is
dependent on the party. The merchandise bought
at the exchange current abroad is resold in the
German market at a rate fixed by Herr Darr6. The
difference is appreciable ; it can reach several hun-
dreds of millions of marks, according to the year.
An estimate of half a billion marks annually would
not be too high. The Reichsnahrstand in consequence
is very rich. With the sums thus acquired it finances
its own “ Politico- Agrarian ” apparatus, as they call
it. This organisation has a representative in every
region, every district, every village ; and each
representative is paid according to his grade. Herr
Walter Darr6 has acquired and renovated a medieval
imperial castle at Goslar, an ancient and picturesque
town in the centre of Germany. It is there that he
has installed his offices, far from Berlin and the central
administration. In his choice of surroundings he

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I PAID HITLER

shows romantic leanings, but this romanticism also
serves to mask corruption.

He runs experimental farms for the raising of silk-
worms, hemp, flax, mulberries, soya beans, and for
various other useless and bizarre projects. He
subsidises Alfred Rosenberg, the originator of the
neo*pagan Aryan cult, and his historical or pre-
historical researches. The sums are taken from the
household budgets of every German worker, since
they are the product of the arbitrary level of German
food prices. This is the way in which the Aryan
hobby-horses of the regime are being fed. As
she buys her scant portion of rationed food, every
German housewife can look with satisfaction upon
her modest contribution toward the exhumation of
Viking bones from the sands of Pomerania, or upon
the support she gives to the archaeological pseudo-
science with which the Nazis fill our ears.

All this does not go far enough. The man who
appropriates most of the budget of the Reichsnahr-
stand, and consequently the tribute levied on the
budget of every German worker, is Heinrich Himmler,
who needs it for his Gestapo and his army of
praetorians, spies, and torturers. The difference
between domestic prices and foreign prices might
have been converted into a compensation fund and
thus served to lower the price level of certain
necessities of life. But nothing of the kind has been
done. The German people pay for all edibles a price
far above the world price, not in order to favour
the development of agriculture, but to support the
spies set to watch them, and the torturers of their
kind.

These gentry still have another accessory source of

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209

income. A certain number of well-to-do personalities
are solicited to pay a regular contribution to the SS.
In return they receive a diploma and a pin bearing
the two initials of the Black militia. They are called
‘‘ Protectors of the SS.” This honour costs dear, but
it serves as a recommendation ” to the Gestapo.
Industrialists, merchants, and officials compete for it,
especially if they are not members of the party. Thus
they believe themselves to be protected by Himmler.
This is reminiscent of the tribute which merchants
and burghers of the Middle Ages used to pay to the
robber barons in order to protect their goods and
li\ps.

How does Himmler dispose of all these funds ? He
pays his men, builds barracks and social centres for
his troops, villas or country homes for himself and
other chiefs of the Gestapo, and purchases arms inde-
pendently of the ministry of war. Himmler, like
Darre, likes to give sumptuous feasts. He pays his
spies in Germany and abroad. Who knows ? — per-
haps even the concentration camps that depend on
the chief of the Gestapo may be supported by the
modest budget of the workers, thanks to the arbitrary
level of prices of food.

I have already mentioned one particular customer
of Darre — Alfred Rosenberg. This pseudo-philosopher
of Russian origin directs an organisation named

Foreign Policy Bureau of the National Socialist
Party.” It includes an entire staff of conspirators
who spread their ramifications even abroad. It is
Alfred Rosenberg who subsidises the White Russians
residing in Germany. He supports a militia composed
of young Russians who are resolved to do anything
to bring about the overthrow of Stalin. I do not

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I PAID HITLER

know whether the pact with the Russian dictator has
put an end to that underground activity.^

So far as he himself is concerned, Rosenberg passes
for being disinterested. It is said that he sacrifices
his personal income to the cause. When Hitler pre-
sented him with the German Grand Prize for phil-
osophy (which has replaced the Nobel Prize so far
as Germany is concerned), he was said to be very
poor. However, his anti-Christian books sell well.
School libraries, even in the Catholic Rhineland, are
obliged to buy them !

Baldur von Schirach and his “ Hitler Youth ” are
also subsidised out of the budget of the housewiv^ps
through the food ministry. Thus Baldur von Schirach
defrays the expenses of his staff, pays for his journeys
abroad, and keeps his whole army of young boys
and young girls. Dane, Himmler, and Baldur von
Schirach form the radical group of the National
Socialist party ; its influence is considerable. Their
alliance rests on their complicity in graft. This is
one of the consequences of the curious methods of
financing that exist in Germany to-day.

After those of Darre, the most considerable “ black '*
funds are probably those of Dr. Ley, the stammering
drunkard who is the chief of the German Labour
Front. He controls the four to five hundred million
marks paid in every year by the German workers as
dues to the Labour Front.

1 do not say that he puts all this money into his
own pocket. But the figure has certainly turned his
head. He is in the situation of a man who has won
a million in the sweepstakes. He is in quest of oppor-

* Ptdflisher’t Note : Thi* was, of course, written before die out-
break of the Nazi-Soviet war.

NAZI ORGANISED GRAFT

2II

tunities to spend his money. He ordered the con-
struction of an entire fleet. One of the boats bore
his name and has been sunk, it seems, while trans-
porting troops to Norway. With these boats he used
to organise trips to Madeira and the Scandinavian
fjords. He had an automobile factory built for the
production of the People’s Car. On this occasion
he invented a brand new form of knavery. The
future buyers of the People’s Car were invited to buy
it in advance, by making pre-delivery instalments.
This is the reverse of the credit instalment system.
The system shows genius. Ley pocketed about a
hundred million marks when the war came ; because
the People’s Car factory now had to produce tanks
and motor-cycles for the army.

It is Ley who has invented the holiday organisation
bearing the strange name of Kraft durch Freude (Strength
through Joy). This organisation owns large and new
tourist boats which Ley uses for “ workers’ cruises.”
In fact, it is the Nazi moguls, large and small, who
were the first ones to profit. Strength through Joy
publishes several illustrated reviews of incredible
lavishness and utter uselessness. It has rented beaches
along the Baltic Sea. At the famous resort of Riigen
Dr. Ley has had constructed an enormous hotel,
accommodating twenty-five thousand people. One
might wonder how people can rest in such a crush.
But Ley does not take them to Riigen for their rest.
The. National Socialist purpose in organising the
Strength through Joy was not leisure for the worker.
Leisure would be demgerous to the Nazi regime.
People would have time to think, and this must be
avoided by keeping them busy without interruption^
To prevent Aem from thinking, they are provided

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I PAID HITLER

with physical pastimes. They are never allowed to
be their own masters’. Such is, in Ley’s own words,
the idea that inspired the construction of the hotel
on the island of Riigen.

Ley is also responsible for the building of an im-
mense palace for the Labour Front, in the west of
Berlin. The building is larger than any other
ministry, even Goering’s Ministry of the Air, which
is of grandiose proportions. Thousands of officials
“ work ” there. It also comprises sumptuous recep-
tion halls. One day I was invited to one of Ley’s
receptions. It was magnificent. In the lobby a fat
man was parading up and down in a beautiful uni-
form and with numerous decorations. He was the
hall-porter of the palace. Some workers who were
invited to the reception took him for Goering and
greeted him most respectfully.

In order not to lag behind Himmler (to whom he
certainly also gives money) Ley has created his own
workers’ militia, called the Werkscharen, or Factory
Legions. They are composed of tall young men from
eighteen to twenty, clad in a blue uniform. Ley is
very proud of them. Thus he owns, like every other
Nazi grandee, his own little private army.

Out of the hundred of millions that go through his
hands. Ley keeps a small share for his personal needs.
He has had built for himself a handsome villa in an
aristocratic section of Berlin. An antiquary who is
a friend of mine told me that he had one day been
called to Ley’s house. He had to wait for about
half an hour in the waiting-room where the S.S. men
OR watch were comfortably resting in large arm-
chairs, their revolvers sticking in their belts. At last
he was ushered into Frau Ley’s apartment. She once

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213

was a salesgirl in a large Cologne store. She had
decided to buy a “ tapestry,” no doubt because the
possession of tapestry to her was the sure hallmark
of a certain social rank.

“ I have asked you to come,” she said to the anti-
quary, “ because I should like to have a tapestry.”

“ I am at your disposal, madam. Have you some-
thing particular in mind ? ”

“ No,” said Frau Ley, “ except that I want to have
a genuine one.”

At that moment Dr. Ley came in and solved the
problem : “ That’s very easy — we’ll take the most
expensive one ! ”

Frau Himmler, the wife of the Gestapo chief, is
on about the same cultural level.

Frau von Mackensen, daughter of Baron von
Neurath (now “ protector ” of Bohemia) and wife
of the German ambassador to Rome, thought one
day that it would be a good thing to pay a call on the
wife of the most powerful person in Germany. An
ambassador may deem it useful to take certain pre-
cautions. Frau von Mackensen arrived and made
her curtsey to Frau Himmler almost as though she
were the queen of Italy. But Frau Himmler, without
giving herself the time to return the compliment,
rushed to her guest in order to feel the material of
her dress, exclaiming, “ What ! You still have
genuine silk ? ” The ladies of the new gentlemen who
are ruling Germany appreciate “genuine” values.

Next to Goering, Himmler, Darr6, and Ley, Dr.
Goebbels appears rather like a pauper. He has no
private army, and his “ black ” funds amount to
scarcely more than two hundred million marks a year.
Dairy’s and Ley’s both exceed half a billion. Goebbels’

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1 PAID HITLER

two hundred million are the monthly licence fees from
the radio listeners. From these sums Goebbels has
to defray the programme costs. Nevertheless, a nice
sum is left over for his personal use. For his private
needs he has, besides, the products of his pen — an
appreciable sum — for under the Nazi regime the prose
of the official authors finds many compulsory buyers.
Besides this, Goebbels owns shares in a film corpora-
tion. His luxury, however, is of a more modest
character than Goering’s or Himmler’s. Goebbels
has not the physique of a castle knight. He is con-
tent with a sumptuous but discreetly hidden villa at
Schwanenwerder on the River Havel (near Berlin).
Instead of buying lands in Germany he cautiously
converts his savings into international values, deposited
in foreign banks.

It is interesting to note that the Berlin population
tolerates with a certain amount of indulgence the
extravagances of Goeiing, but does not forgive Dr.
Goebbels anything. One day the latter had a film
shown in Berlin picture-houses ; it represented his
family in his beautiful home at Schwanenwerder. The
audience hissed energetically in the dark. The picture
was immediately withdrawn.

Such are the people who to-day govern Germany.
It is astonishing how they can afford the impudence
of proclaiming themselves Socialists and of insulting,
from amidst their corruption, the “ western plu-
tocracies,” to use their phrase. The vast majority
of the German people know nothing of these refined
methods of growing rich at the expense of the com-
mon weal and the sweat of the working masses. Some
day, when they learn how they were deceived and
scorned by their leaders, their fury will be terrible.

CHAPTER SIX

THE ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN AND THE
CONCENTRATION CAMPS

F rom the moment they seized power, the Nazi
leaders professed the greatest contempt for the
individual. A large number of German conservatives,
ignorant of the facts and appalled by the burning of
the Reichstag, assented to the incarceration of the
political enemies of the regime without a trial. They
may have regarded this measure as purely provisional
and justified by the danger of civil war, and assumed
that the National Socialists would soon reinstate legal
procedure. They were mistaken. The concentration
camps, better called torture camps, are, to this day,
a state institution. Despite all my inquiries, I have
never learned in what circumstances my nephew, von
Remnitz, died at Dachau.

One of the outstanding cases which I found par-
ticularly shocking was the imprisonment of the
Protestant pastor, Martin Nicmoller, in the con-
centration camp of Oranienburg. Martin Niemoller
had been a naval ofiicer. During the war of 1914-
1918 he commanded a submarine. After the war he
became a pastor. When the National Socialists

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I PAID HITLER

attempted to lay hands on the Protestant Church
and to compel it to bow to the anti-Christian spirit
of the regime, Niemoller led the resistance in the
religious field. For a long time that tall and imposing
figure with its pale, ascetic countenance stood erect
in the pulpit of his church in Dahlem near Berlin.
He courageously defended the law of the Gospel
against the Nazis’ outrageous schemes. He was the
champion of freedom of conscience against the
oppressor. The little church was too small to hold
the numbers of people who crowded to hear him, in
spite of the watchfulness of the Gestapo. Among the
followers of the fearless priest was the finance minister
of the Reich, Count Lutz von Schwerin-Krosigk.
Goering’s sister, Frau Rigle, had had her son con-
firmed by Niemoller. He had long been protected
by Goering and the army, for Frau Rigle had under-
taken to intercede for him with her brother. But
there came a day when Goering forbade her to mention
his name.

Hitler felt that the tongue of this free and fearless
man was a danger to his regime. It was he who
gave the order for Niemollcr’s arrest. The pastor
was summoned before the Berlin court on the charge
of breaking some old law of Bismarck’s concerning
preaching. He was acquitted by the court. He
ought to have been released at once. But, despite
his popularity, despite the vindication of his honesty
and his innocence by the court. Hitler did not hesitate
to commit a fresh inquiry. On leaving the court
Niemoller was taken by the Gestapo and interned in
the concentration camp of Oranicnburg. Later, old
Marshal von Mackensen made a touching attempt to
obtain his release. Hitler refused.

ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN

217

Deprived of their home, Frau Niemoller and the
pastor’s eight children were in a very difficult situation.
A friend of the family came to their aid. As he was
not well off himself, he approached some Westphalian
industrialists — Niemoller was a native of Elberfeld —
and asked them to help. They all agreed with alacrity
— except Albert Vogler, who promised his assistance,
but revoked it at the last moment for fear of dis-
pleasing the regime.

Catholic that I am, and brought up in that tradition,

I bow before that noble Protestant, Martin Niemoller.
As an officer, he displayed courage during the war. But
more than that, he has set the Germans an example of a
rarer virtue : in refusing to be silenced by the Gestapo,
Pastor Martin Niemoller has shown the Germans what
is meant by civiq courage — that virtue which Bismarck
used to say was unknown in the country.

The persecution of the Jews reached its height in
the autumn of 1938 and aroused universal protest.
Up to 1933 I had not attached much importance to
the anti-Semitic brawls of the National Socialist party.
The inhabitants of the Catholic provinces of the
Rhine are not anti-Semitic. There may be regions
in Germany where the slow-wittedness of the popula-
tion has enabled the Jews to play an exaggerated role.
This has never been the case in the Rhineland. We
have always considered the Jew Heinrich Heine as
one of our national poets. The Nazis may clestroy
Heine’s statue in his native city of Diisseldorf, but
they will never be able to prevent people from singing

Die Lorelei ” on the boats that sail down the Rhine.

Some months after coming to power the National
Socialist party organised riotous anti-Jewish demon-
strations throughout Germany. To please their

2i8

^ I PAID HITLER

following of small shopkeepers suffering from the
depression, and to give their Storm Troopers, who love
street fights, something to do, the Nazi leaders ordered
coarse and insulting epithets to be painted on the
Jews* shop windows. This new departure was not
taken seriously in the great Rhenish cities. In all of
our towns with a large working population, the depart-
ment stores remained open. The people could not
have done without them. Later on, when the Jews
were ousted from trade, the Jewish stores were not
suppressed as announced in the Nazi programme.
The Jews were merely robbed of their holdings. As
for the small retailers, who stupidly believed that the
slump of their business was due to Jewish competition,
they were subsequently ruined by the disastrous
armament policy and sent to work on the fortifications
on the western frontier.

No one knows better than I, an industrialist, what
services were rendered by Jews to German national
economy after the war. The Nazis accuse the Jewish
bankers of being responsible for Germany’s indebted-
ness. According to them, the Jews had conspired
“ to make Germany the prey of international finance.”
A sinister stupidity. The Jewish bankers saved Ger-
man economy after the war. It was thanks to these
Jews that medium and small enterprises were able to
obtain from the American banks the necessary credits
for their re-equipment.

SoDie of the large firms succeeded in floating loans
in America on their own account. But most of the
others, imknown to the leaders, could only get money
through the Jewish banks. In guaranteeing loans
contracted abroad, the latter took certain risks. But
in doing so, the Jewish bankers bore witness to their

ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN

219

confidence in the future of German business. The
Simon Hirschland Bank at Essen, for instance, obtained
credits to the amount of at least fifty millions for the
small and medium establishments of our region. Its
capital did not exceed eight milhon marks. The
great German banks did not dare to take the risk of
such credits. Moreover, about 1930, at the moment
of the economic crisis the lack of foreign exchange
caused difficulties in payments. Here again the
Jewish banks intervened ; they were able to obtain
moratoriums or renewals from the foreign creditors.
The Nazis themselves have been obliged to recognise
the services rendered by this small Jewish bank in
Essen. It was this bank which negotiated the im-
portant American Krupp loan in collaboration with
another Jewish bank, Goldman Sachs & Co., of New
York. For a long time no one dared to lay hands
on the Simon Hirschland bank, notwithstanding the
pressure of the extremist elements of the party. It
was the last Jewish bank in Germany under the Nazi
regime. Owing to the foreign credits, it was impossible
to suppress it.

German economic and financial circles had con-
sistently frowned upon the development of the anti-
Semitic tendencies of National Socialism. Dr. Schacht,
in a speech at the opening of the Konigsberg Fair in
1935, did not hesitate to protest against an agitation
which he regarded as a serious danger to German
economy. I, myself, on returning from America in
J935> had an opportunity of bringing up the ques-
tion with Goering. Even at that time, the general,
who was minister-president of Prussia, had assumed,
the air of a sovereign. One day, he invited me to
a deer-stalking party in the Schorfheide. I accepted

220

1 PAID HITLER

in the hope that I should find an opportunity of
talking over certain matters of importance.

I do not know whether the keeper, who had been
ordered by Goering to prepare my kill, informed his
master of the difficulties he experienced. I am not
a good shot. It was a rainy day, I had brought no
sighting apparatus, and I missed three deer. Finally,
I brought off my kill. It was high time, for the
keeper was in despair. The poor fellow had been
formally instructed to see that I . killed my deer.
This was my first, and undoubtedly my last.

Goering and I then dined together at a rustic
hunting lodge which harmonised with its surround-
ings. It was only later that Goering built his famous
palace, Karin Hall, in the depth of the forest. I
have never been there, But I have been told that a
Frenchman, who was a guest there of Goering’s, and
who afterwards visited a former imperial hunting
lodge in Prussia, could not help remarking, “ I never
realised before how simple the kings of Prussia were.”

After dinner I had a long conversation with Goering
on the religious and Jewish questions. Goering’s
interest in religious matters is confined to their political
angle. It was this principle which had actuated him
the summer before, when he had issued his proclama-
tion against p>olitical Catholicism in the Rhine prov-
inces. Suspicious of the hostility of the Catholic
population to their methods of government, the Nazis
interpreted these tendencies as a rebirth of the old
Centre party. I tried to explain to Goering what
Catholicism really meant. I got the impression that
his knowledge of religious problems was virtually
non-existent. He told me that in the Bavarian
churches he had seen votive offerings in the form

ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN

221

of arms or legs in token of gratitude for recovered
health. “ It is all superstition and stupidity,” he said.
He was incapable of understanding the gratitude
and the profound faith of the Catholic people who
render thanks to God by means of these naive tokens.
He would undoubtedly prefer to replace the religion
of the masses by a blind belief in Hitler and in the
genius of the Fiihrer. To the Nazis this is not a
superstition !

I also spoke to Goering about the Jewish question.
During my travels in America, I was able to estimate
how much harm Germany’s treatment of the Jews
had done in American public opinion. I explained
this to Goering. He fully realised that it was neces-
sary to cultivate good relations with America. But,”
he said, ‘‘ what are we to do ? Should the Sturmer be
suppressed ? ”

The Stumer is a pornographic sheet, published by
the leader of the anti-Semites, Julius Streicher of
Nuremberg. He had just started to post it up in
streets and squares, notwithstanding protests of parents
and of the Catholic clergy against such an exhibition
of indecency before children. Since the war, it seems
that Streicher has finally been certified as a lunatic
and confined. If it had only been done before !

I suggested that Goering might send a German
official mission to the United States in order to re-
assure the American public. The person appointed,
I said, should be able to tell President Roosevelt
that excesses had doubtless been perpetrated, but
that no principle was involved and order would be
re-established. Goering himself is not anti-Semitic.
He fully realised the harm that Streicher’s agitatioh
had done us in America.

222

I PAID HITLER

“Whom shaU we send?*’ he said. “Herr
Schmidt ? ** Schmidt was the minister of economy,
an insurance director, and totally unknown in
America. The poor fellow may have known a great
deal about insurance. But economic questions were
too much for him. It was he who suggested creating
that Supreme Chamber of German Economics which
met only once. I proposed that Dr. Schacht be
entrusted with this mission, But there the matter
rested. Gocring is not omnipotent, and the Nazis
in Hitler’s immediate entourage are so limited and
presumptuous as to despise America, of which they
know nothing.

I was to have attended the famous Nuremberg
meeting of the Reichstag which voted the anti-
Semitic laws. But when I arrived, I was informed
that the Nazis intended to change the German flag,
so I took the next train back. Other members of
the Reichstag and even of the government, Schacht
in particular, were also opposed to these infamous
bills, but steps were taken to conceal the fact of their
opposition.

It was in November, 1938, that the Nazis, on the
pretext of the murder of vom Rath, a secretary of
the embassy in Paris, by a young Polish Jew, organ-
ised the systematic persecution of the German Jews.
The exact circumstances of the murder have never
been established. The curious thing about it is that,
during a whole year, the National Socialist govern-
ment made no attempt to hasten the action of the
French courts with regard to the murderer. This
was unusual. On the occasion of the murder of
Gustloflf, a Nazi chief, killed by a Jewish student at
Davos, the Nazi press had vituperated against the

ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN

223

delays and lenience of the Swiss courts. As a matter
of fact, the question of justice in this ceise meant
very little to them. What they wanted was a pretext
to create disorder and to despoil the Jews of their
property. The collective fine then decreed by the
Nazi Government was virtually tantamount to con-
fiscation. But this was not the worst. The most
scandalous scenes took place in all German cities.
The official organisations of the party in power were
transformed, under the eyes of a complacent police,
into bands of incendiaries. Among them could be
found even high magistrates of the Reich, generally
in charge of the repression, not the perpetration, of
crime. To curry favour with the party, they had
joined the ranks of the Storm Troops and the
SS guards.

In Berlin, Nuremberg, Diisseldorf, Munich, .and
Augsburg, in almost all German towns, swastika-
flagged columns of militia plundered the Jewish
dwellings, smashing the furniture, slashing the pic-
tures, and stealing everything they could carry away.
At night and even in broad daylight, they drenched
the synagogues with gasoline and set them ablaze.
The firemen received instructions not to extinguish
the fires, but to confine themselves to saving the
neighbouring buildings.

At that time I was travelling in Bavaria. When I
heard what was happening throughout the country,
I decided that such horrors could not have occurr^
in our Rhine provinces. On returning to Diisseldorf
the next day 1 learned that tlie impossible had
happened.

* The highest official of the local National Socialist
group, a man named Florian, the Gauleiter (in the

224

I PAID HITLER

language of the party, this is equivalent to prefect
rank), had himself organised the riots. Not content
with attacking the Jews, he had planned the murder
of the highest official of the local Prussian adminis-
tration, the Regierungsprasident S . I knew the

man personally. He was an excellent administrator
and had, perhaps for this reason, incurred the hostility
of Florian. He was well acquainted with Goering,
who had been under obligation to him in the past
and who had appointed him to his important post
in Diisseldorf.

Florian, who was an official of the party but not
of the state, had organised this odious personal attack
during the anti-Jewish disturbances, on the pretext
that the president’s wife had had a Jewish grand-
mother. Many men with wives of Jewish origin have
divorced them in order to propitiate* the party. In
such cases, the courts invariably grant the divorce
on the ground that the person concerned was married
before the ‘‘ Nuremberg Laws ” were enacted, and
was unaware of the importance of the ethnical ques-
tion. This example was not followed by Presi-
dent S , who happened to be an honourable man.

He had informed Goering of his wife’s origin and
Goering, in agreement with Hitler, had appointed
him just the same.

On November gth, motor-cars, equipped with loud-
speakers from the propaganda department, were sent
by Florian throughout Diisseldorf to summon the
people to demonstrate against the Jews and their
sympathisers. All Nazis knew that this was directed
against the Regierungsprasident. Extremist elements
of the party, recruited from the scum of the popula-
tion, set themselves to destroy and plunder the dwelling

ANTI-JEWISH CAMPAIGN

225

2tnd the shops of the Jews, injuring and torturing all
those upon whom they could lay hands. But for the
ignoble purpose he had in view, Florian felt that he
could not rely on the Diisseldorf Storm Troops. He
therefore called in an Elberfeld detachment. These
troops, armed with iron bars, were launched against
the local government building, which was damaged
and plundered. The president narrowly escaped
being killed in his own office and got away only by
a miracle.

As in other German cities, there were scenes of
disorder and pillage throughout the town. Jewish
magnates, intellectuals, physicians, and tradesmen
were arrested. Many were odiously maltreated, even
the old men. The aged legal adviser of the coal
syndicate, Heinemann — who was seventy-five years
old and universally respected — committed suicide with
his wife. He had a small collection of pictures which
he had bequeathed to the city of Essen. The Nazis
completely destroyed it. Florian had organised these
atrocities with particular savagery on the pretext that
vom Rath, the young diplomat murdered in Paris,
was a native of Diisseldorf.

Such was the news I received on my return. I was
horrified. As a councillor of state I was entitled to
approach Minister- President Goering in person. I
immediately wrote him an explosive letter, saying
that it was intolerable that a high official of the
party should organise disturbances, and be able to
attack, in this odious manner, the Jews and even a
government official who was the highest local adminis-
trative authority of the Prussian State. I reminded
Goering that he himself had appointed the Regierungs-

prudent and that S had never concealed Ac

226

1 PAID HITLER

fact of his wife’s ancestry. I firmly declared to the
minister-president of Prussia that the excesses organ-
ised by the Nazi Gauleiter at Diisseldorf were the
ruin of all authority and an encouragement to anarchy
and to the vilest instincts of the population. In these
conditions, I said, it was impossible ibr me to remain
councillor of state. I could not retain this office and
thus, in my native country, seem to approve acts
which I formally condemned. I asked Goering to
accept my resignation.

It should be added that the people of Diisseldorf,
as of many other towns, disapproved of the excesses
organised by the Nazis against the Jews. Some days
later I was dining with Schacht in Berlin. A minister,
who shall be anonymous, for he is still in office,
congratulated me upon my attitude. “ At last,” he
said, “ someone has dared to protest against these
atrocities.” He added that I should demand the
punishment of Florian and the release of all the Jews,
who had been arrested. I took further steps with
Goering. Some days later the marshal sent me a
messenger. He reproached me bitterly for resigning,
saying that this caused him personal distress. If I
wanted to protest, why did I not resign from the
Reichstag ? I replied that my intervention was based
on the fact that I was a state councillor and that the
business concerned the Prussian administration. I
repeated my request for Florian’s punishment. Goer-
ing’s emissary replied, “ No one can do anything
against a Gauleiter, not- even Goering himself.”
Florian is a friend of Rudolf Hess, and Hess does
not like Goering, whom he considers a rival.

In order to conclude this affair, I informed the
finance minister of Prussia that 1 no longer regarded

ANn-JEWBH CAMPAIGN

aa?

myself as councillor of state. I requested him there-
fore to cease paying my salary. This letter, un-
doubtedly through Goering’s instructions, was treated
as non-existent, and my councillor’s fees continued
to be paid into the Thyssen Bankf where I had them
transferred to a special account and placed at the
disposal of the minister-president of Prussia.

In a letter I sent to Goering after the declaration
of war, I reminded him of my protest against the
excesses committed against the Jews.

Since 1935, I have had no further contact with the
National Socialist leaders. I ceased to display the
swastika flag and in fact broke off practically all
relations with the party. But I took no steps to make
my opposition public. The excesses of the autumn
of 1938 caused me to abandon this reserve. My
resignation from the council of state was proof not
only of my displeasure but also of my intention to
denounce any semblance of solidarity with a regime
tolerating such outrages. But my protest was passed
over in silence, just as would have been the case with
my protest against the war a year later, if I had
returned to Germany.

I have learned since that Hamburg was the only
city in Germany where the National Socialist Gau-
leiter Kauffmann, of Rhenish origin, did not tolerate
molestation of the Jews. In the great city which
Kauffman administered in his double capacity of
Gauleiter of the party and Reich governor, neither
arson nor pillage was permitted. Near us, in Miihl-
heim, a grotesque incident occurred. The Jewish
community, feeling the approach of the storm,
had sold the synagogue to ' the town some weeks
before the disturbances. The Nazis set fire to the

1 PAID HITLER

aa8

building regardless of the fact that it was municipal
property.

It is, above all, in its anti-Jewish campaign, that
the party has officially given free rein to the base
instincts which lie at the root of its so-called philosophy.
The National Socialist government had the miserable
privilege of encouraging and even ordering acts which
are considered to be crimes by the whole civilised
world. Foreigners who were in Germany at the time
were appalled at these scenes of sadism and savagery ;
they saw the official incendiaries of the synagogues at
work. In the capital of the Reich, in the centre of
the town and in full view of the embassies, the Storm
Troops and the younger Hitlerites, commanded by
their chiefs, gutted and plundered dwellings and
shops. In tolerating — indeed, actually organising —
theft, arson, pillage, and even murder in the con-
centration camps, the National Socialist regime,
especially in that autumn of 1938, revealed itself to
the whole world as a government of gangsters.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

T he persecution of the Jews and the attack on
the liberty of conscience of the German Protes-
tants are morally very significant acts. They discredit
the ruling Nazi clique in the eyes of the world. But
by these inhuman methods Hitler has been able, little
by little, to eliminate the Jews from German life,
without serious political consequences within the
country. The Jewish minority in Germany was too
small and too scattered. The anti-Semitic excesses,
from the point of view of general policy, may be
regarded as a series of individual crimes for which the
perpetrators will one day have to account, while those
who have robbed the Jews of their property will have to
be forced to disgorge. But the economic consequences
of the anti-Jewish action may well be more lasting
and serious. It is difficult to appraise them to-day.

The persecution of the Protestants is less spectacular
but it has a deeper significance. The Nazi leaders
were not concerned with establishing a kind of order
among the numerous Protestant sects and churches
existing in Germany. It was neither on religious
grounds nor for legitimate reasons of state that they

229

230

I PAID HITLER

tried to unify Protestantism by appointing a head of
the church with the unusual title of Reichsbischof—
Bishop of the Reich. (He was, by the way, a pathetic
little man, this Ludwig Muller. He had been an
employee of Hugo Stinnes at Miihlheim, and then
became a pastor* — no one knows why.) No, the
Nazis’ aim was quite a different one. They wished
to make German Protestantism a kind of state reli-
gion, after stripping it of all Christian principles. To
delude the simple-minded, they called it “ German
Christianity.” I once asked an honest peasant from
East Prussia what his religion was. “ I am a German
Christian,” he said, for I am a German.” He was
convinced that that was something superior.

As a matter of fact. National Socialism is not a
political system. Rather, it is intended to be a
philosophy and a system of morals — a Weltanschauung j
as the Nazis pretentiously call it.

This philosophy is summed up in the phrase Blut
und Boden (blood and soil). Most people do not
realise the perniciousness of the doctrine which is
hidden behind those two words. Its comic abbrevia-
tion “ Blubo ” (pronounced Bloobo) has sometimes
even been made the butt of ridicule. What is this
doctrine ? It teaches that blood and soil have pro-
duced man. He is linked to nature by every fibre
of his being. The blood which flows in his veins
endows him with a mysterious force — the life of the
ancestors of whom he is the reincarnation during his
existence. He has a profound affinity with the soil
^ on which he is bom and from which he draws his
sustenance. He represents a tiny fraction of world
energy. His guiding purpose must be to exert this
force to his utmost.

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

231

A philosopher friend of mine regards these lucubra-
tions as a philosophy of brute beasts. The Nazis
degrade man to the level of an animal ; the breeding
process must be watched ; he must be domesticated,
fed and broken in by a well-calculated plan to produce
a prescribed “ performance.’’ It is the method of
the stud or the training stable. The Nazis set them-
selves to produce Nietzsche’s superman by a system
of animal breeding.* The strict rules imposed for
marriage, or rather for mating, in Himmler’s SS
(Body Guards) all point this way. It is unfortunate
that Hitler himself cannot participate in this. One
might have been able to produce, in this one case,
the coveted result ! This conception of man leaves
no room for individual morals concerning the responsi-
bility of each human being to his own conscience
and, above all, concerning a religion which recognises
the supernatural.

Such arc the principles according to which Hitler
governs the German people. Unfortunately, he has
succeeded in inculcating them in a large part of the
younger generation. The youthful followers of this
brute philosophy are capable of courage, obedience,
and devotion to the service of the composite personi-
fication of the race, of which they regard themselves
a mere fragment. For them, the race is represented
by Germany. Its most powerful expression is to be
found in the person of the Fiihrer, whom they venerate
almost as a deity. But the materialistic — so to speak
animalistic — youth has no knowledge of God in the
spiritual sense of the word. The ‘‘ German God ”
of the Nazis is Nature, the mysterious source from
which they spring. Their act of faith consists of
* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page a49.

232 I PAID HITLER

developing to the utmost the natural forces gathered
up in each individual.

Some fanatics, still more insane — or perhaps more
innocent — than the rest, have endeavoured to add a
little fantasy to these doctrines by connecting them
up with the legends of ancient Germanic mythology.
These fervent disciples of the German God revel in
reminiscences of Wotan, Baldur, Thor, and Freya.
The names of their children are drawn from the
Scandinavian Edda,* in order to avoid those of the
calendar saints and above all those of the Old Testa-
ment. Goering himself has followed this example.
This is one of the grotesque sides of this sad tale.

But there are other and gloomier aspects. One
day I was invited to visit one of the schools where
the National Socialists propose to educate the party’s
future elite. These schools are called Ordensburgen —
castles of order. In the confusion of ideas which
characterises the National Socialist regime this aims
to simulate a concept of the Catholic Knights of the
Teutonic Order,* who left west Germany to convert
and conquer the savage Slav tribes of the Baltic
region once called Prussia. That is because Alfred
Rosenberg has got it into his head to revive the
Teutonic Order ! .

The school is installed in the picturesque ruins of
an old castle fortress in the Eifel district. This has
been repaired, enlarged, and luxuriously modernised.
The boys, known as Junkers^ are educated as if they
were budding knights. Here, then, is a party calling
itself a German labour party which sets out to revive
the feudal system ! The Junkers are trained in sport
and the use of arms. They learn te dance ; they

* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 249.

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233

do dangerous stunts, and they hunt. I do not know
whether they have much time for real lessons, but
to my knowledge this is the only school in the world
without a library !

The director, or rather the fiihrer, of this Ordens-
burg is a former engineer. One day he outlined to
us his ideas on education. For him, man is nothing
but a machine ; the goal of education is to help the
pupil to fulfil his function as a human machine.
Training is substituted for intellect. I was stupefied.
One of the accusations levelled against modem in-
dustry is that, by inaugurating the moving belt
system, it has transformed men into machines. The
industrialists have been the first to do everything
possible to minimise the disadvantages of a process
which is indispensable to modern production. And
here we find a National Socialist pedagogue who has
been entrusted with the training of a so-called elite^
proposing to develop, not individuals with intelligence
and a sense of responsibility, but machines.

The followers of Karl Marx have never preached
any such materialism. The Nazis have set out to
destroy the soul, A dictatorship has no use for
personality. A nation of robots is easier to govern.

This is the underlying principle of the so-called
philosophy of blood and soil. It is easy to see how
useful a political instrument this could be in the
hands of unscrupulous leaders who are filled with
contempt for the people they govern, especially the
common people and the workers.

Such a doctrine is completely incompatible with
the principles of Christianity. In order to inculcate
it in the masses, the Nazis thought that they might
make use of the Protestant Church — after emptying

234

I PAID HITLER

it of Christianity. During the course of its history
in Germany, Protestantism as a state religion has
often proved to be complacent toward the German
princes, and it has always fostered loyal subjects of
the ruling house. But no prince has ever demanded
of his Church, domesticated as it may have been,
that it renounce the essential principles of Christianity.
Hitler, however, tried to do just that. His under-
taking was frustrated by the heroic resistance of
pastors like Martin Niemoller and of their congre-
gations.

Nevertheless, the National Socialists succeeded in
persuading many to recant, especially in Protestant
regions where religious indifference is often the rule.
In Germany adherence to a religious sect is the normal
thing. In order to renounce such adherence, formal
steps must be taken through the civil authorities.
The Nazis have simplified the process. Practically
all the young people forming part of the SS have
abjured Christianity. The same applies to chiefs of
the young Hitlerite detachments. Many are followers
of the new German paganism and hold rituals in
honour of Wotan, the Sun, or Nature, the mother of
all life, if they do not formally worship Hitler.

The doctrine of blood and soil is used as an argument
against the use of intelligence* At the beginning of
the regime one of my friends had written a book on
the Jewish question and had sent it to the more
important oflScials of the party. Florian, the Gauleiter
of Diisseldorf, forbade the circulation of a work which
was intended as an objective discussion of this im-
portant problem. The grounds for the suppression
are not devoid of interest. The Gauleiter cut short
all discussion with the words, This book is useless,

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

235

for our citizens, conscious of their blood and of their
soil, could never make a mistake.’’

This argument is obviously final. But it can be
valid only for brute beasts like Florian, who is totally
uneducated and, at best, able to take a hand at cards.

The attacks of National Socialism on the Catholic
Church have a wider scope and are totally different
in character from the attempt to enslave Protestantism.
Hitler, a born Catholic, was an admirer of the political
sagacity of the Catholic Church, if we are to believe
Mein Kampf. At the beginning of the regime he en-
deavoured to reach an agreement with the Church.
He concluded a concordat with the Vatican.* In
this Vice-Chancellor von Papen was the moving
spirit. The concordat was the first treaty concluded
by the new regime. Like the others, it was violated.
But Hitler saw in it a considerable political advantage.
The new and revolutionary National Socialist govern-
ment was accepted as a partner by one of the most
respected moral authorities of the world. It was
capable of concluding a treaty.

From the standpoint of domestic politics, the con-
cordat was a definite feather in the cap of the new
regime. The Church relaxed the rigour of its hostility
to the new party in power, without altogether re-
tracting the German bishops’ condemnation of certain
Nazi doctrines. For about a year it seemed as though
the regime was inclined to keep to its engagements
faithfully. Hitler publicly declared that the anti-
Christian works of Alfred Rosenberg were purely
personal creations and did not officially commit the
National Socialist party. In spite of this, the ideas
of the Nazi pseudo-philosopher continued to serve as
• See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 249.

236

I PAID HITLER

a basis of instruction for the Hitler Youth and the
other party organisations. Hitler, as usual, played a
double game.

The crisis occurred in the summer of 1935. In
my native Rhineland the anti-religious attitude of
the Hitler Youth organisations and of their chief,
Baldur von Schirach, had aroused sharp discontent
among Catholic parents. The clergy had warned
against the new spirit which the regime was trying
to spread among the youth of the country. Further-
more, a general political discontent had begun to
make itself felt. The Nazis saw with anxiety that
former Social Democrats, who had ceased to go to
church during the republican era, had now returned
to the fold. Incidents had taken place in the villages
of the Westerwald, near Coblenz, in which young
Catholic peasants had beaten the pagans of Hitler
Youth who were celebrating the solstice. Tension
threatened to become serious. In the whole of the
Rhine provinces, completely Catholic, the atmosphere
was stormy.

The Nazis, who have no understanding of religious
zeal, saw in this restlessness of the Catholic population
a display of political hostility. They said that the
Catholic Centre party, although it had been officially
dissolved, was renewing intrigues against the Nationad
Socialists through an underground movement. Goering
launched his proclamation against political Christi-
anity. It was not religion that was under discussion,
he disclosed. National Socialism is based on positive
Christianity. He was a respecter of all faiths. But
the enemies of the State were making use of religion
in order to conceal their shady designs. At the same
time the Gestapo was instructed to proceed rigorously

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

237

against the young Catholics. This caused a great
deal of unrest, but there were no important immediate
results. The Catholics maintained their passive re-
sistance.

The Nazi leaders then resorted to an infamous
procedure. In order to disgrace the Catholic clergy
in the eyes of their congregations, they took as a pre-
text certain personal weaknesses known to exist in
a local community of lay brothers, to instigate a series
of scandal trials. The party press began to publish
degrading accounts of moral turpitude to be tried
in secret. Throughout the Rhineland the party
organised lectures in which the speakers recounted
the most scandalous details. At Diisseldorf a Reich
attorney paraded details of immorality cases and
presented them in such a way as to incriminate the
clergy and the Church, whether they were true or
false. The Nazi Gauleiter, who was well aware of
my Catholic convictions, refrained from inviting me.
The trials lasted for several months. The Nazis had
the effrontery to summon into court Monsignor Borne-
wasser, the old bishop of Treves, and Monsignor
Sebastian, the bishop of Speyer, almost eighty years
of age. Biirckel, the sinister Gauleiter of the Pala-
tinate, publicly insulted the venerable bishop, whose
patriotic loyalty was above suspicion. A Nazi court
dared accuse the Bishop of Treves of perjury. The
latter complained to Chancellor Hitler and published
his appeal in a letter to the Catholic population. But
Hitler approved the whole action.

Meanwhile the increasing indignation of the Catholic
population of the Rhineland caused the Nazi leaders
to worry. Protests were heard against all the ignominy
and bad faith. In pursuing their odious campaign of

238 I PAID HITLER

calumny, the Nazis risked provoking a revolt. They
interrupted the trials, but did not cease their attacks
against the Church. The Gestapo continued their
intrigues. Priests denounced by secret agents were
arrested and imprisoned. A young vicar in Essen,
whose mission was among the working class, was
accused of having fomented a Communist plot and
was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment. At that
very time Hitler was secretly negotiating with Stalin !

Also at this time the Nazis were trying to turn
apostate Catholic priests against their own Church.
A professor of the Easing clerical college lent himself
to this treason. He was suspended and excommuni-
cated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich. For
one month his doings were reported in public meetings
and the press of the party reported his attacks against
the Church, but without success.

While a series of scandal trials was in progress the
Nazis attacked the Church in another field. The
religious orders, they affirmed, had systematically
violated the laws prohibiting the export of foreign
exchange. For months the press continued to abound
in stories of monks and nuns concealing wads of bank-
notes in their robes being arrested at the frontier
by the vigilant - customs officials. The Bishop of
Meissen, Monsignor Legge, was implicated in one of
these actions, which could, of course, have been
brought against any German citizen who had relations
with foreign countries. The monsignor escaped im-
prisonment only with great difficulty.

After attempting to defame the clergy by these
detestable means, the Nazis undertook to alienate
the children from their influence. In all the Catholic
regions of Germany they organised a so-called plebiscite

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

239

of Catholic parents in favour of secular schools. In
the agricultural villages the Nazis profited by the
absence of the men working in the fields to collect
lists of signatures during the day. The absence of a
name was taken as signifying approval. The German
bishops courageously protested against these fraudulent
methods. The Bishop of Treves denounced them
from the pulpit. The Nazis had to retreat. They
did not dare to make use of this faked plebiscite.
Even in villages where, according to the Nazis, the
votes had been 100 per cent in favour of the secular
schools, they dared not suppress the Catholic schools.

Nevertheless, the party continued by underground
methods, particularly in the towns, to agitate for
education without religion. Catholic officials were ^
subjected to constant pressure to withdraw their
children from the Catholic school and send them to
the secular school. In the colleges, Nazi professors
derided the dogma and morals of Christianity. Classes
in religion have been made optional, and pupils
desiring to do so can take an hour of sport or gym-
nastics instead. Sermons are supervised by the
Gestapo, and preachers are arrested. The Catholic
press is suppressed. The weekly religious periodicals
and parish bulletins are not allowed to be pub-
lished. The aim is to stifle all expression of Catholic
thought.

But in attacking the Catholic religion the National
Socialists have met more than their match. The
bishops, the clergy, and the population resist with
a silent but tenacious courage. Despite all its efforts,
the National Socialist regime has been unable to
dethrone Catholicism in Germany. On the contrary,
it can even be said that persecution has strengthened it.

2/^0

I PAID HITLER

Monsignor von Galen, Bishop of Munster, in West-
phalia, one day made a profound observation on the
meaning of the fight between the pagan myth of
blood and soil and the traditional religion of Catholic
Westphalia. “ People speak,’’ said the bishop, of
blood and soil. If these words had any significance
whatever, I, more than anyone, should have the
right to invoke this doctrine, for my ancestors have
been established in this country for over five hundred
years. Here, in this Rhenish land, we are on our
own soil and have no need of the false prophets who
come from abroad.”

The bishop was alluding to the standard-bearer of
the anti-Christian forces, Alfred Rosenberg. Rosen-
berg is a Russian intellectual. He has not a drop of
German blood in his veins. His father was a teacher
in a Russian college under the Czarist regime. In
those Russian intellectual circles the “ rationalism ”
of the eighteenth century and the idea of Rousseau
still had some adherents before the last war. As a
student, Rosenberg had become imbued with this
“ rationalism.” It is, moreover, curious to note that
at Riga he belonged to a Latvian and not a German
students’ eissociation. It is said that during the war
of 1914 his brother was in the French secret service.
And this is the man whom the Nazis wish to impose
upon us as the great German philosopher of modern
times.

He has written a book against Christianity, entitled
The Myth of the Twentieth Century. It is the laboured
product of a Voltaire without brains. Goering
asked me one day what I thought of it. ‘‘ To me,” he
added, it is completely idiotic.” I did not contradict
him.

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

241

In this work, Rosenberg serves up once again all
the old nonsense which the anticlericals of all the ages
have written against the Catholic Church. He
flavours this repast with a philosophy inspired by
Rousseau and a naive sort of romantic materialism.
For him, man is naturally good ; the Christian dogma
of original sin and redemption is an insult to his
inherent nobility. Under the Nazi regime the con-
centration camps are doubtless the expression of the
natural goodness of mankind.

This Russian prophet, who has never succeeded in
acclimatising himself in Germany, was one day moved
to set forth his outlandish ideas at Munster, the
diocese of Monsignor von Galen. The bishop preached
a thundering sermon against him and forbade all
Catholics to attend his lecture. Rosenberg, who had
hired the largest hall in the town, was obliged to
speak before a few rows of uniforms and many empty
benches. The Nazis were furious. The minister of
the interior, Frick, remonstrated personally with the
Bishop of Munster. But they did not dare to arrest
him. The Westphalian peasant is said to be a hard
nut to crack. The rustics were perfectly capable of
coming to the defence of their bishop with pitchforks
and truncheons.

At Christmas in 1939, Monsignor von Galen issued
a mandate in the words of the Scriptures : ‘'If the
blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into
the ditch ? ’’ By quoting from the Gospel at that
critical moment. Monsignor von Galen replied with
the whole weight of his authority to the pagan axiom
of the Nazis : “ The Fiihrer is never wrong.’’ And
the bishop admonished his flock not to forget the
authentic source of truth.

I PAID HITLER

242

At the present time the Catholic Church is the sole
organised form of resistance to the spirit of National
Socialism. It is the only adversary with whom the
Nazis are obliged to reckon. The generals, for
instance, lack the courage of the bishops. One day,
in Dusseldorf, I met the general commanding the
Munster army corps. ■ In the course of our conversa-
tion I asked him, “ What do you think of our bishop ?. ”

“ I have never seen him,” the general replied.
“ How can you think I could visit him under present
circumstances ? ” This speaks volumes about the
situation.

For my own part, I have never concealed my
hostility to the religious policy of the Nazis. Since
my departure from Germany, they have spread the
rumour that my whole behaviour was dictated by the
Catholic Church. This, of course, is absurd, but it
leaves me indifferent. Still, I do not wish to hide
the fact that the revolt of my conscience as a Catholic
has largely contributed to my hostility to National
Socialism. I have made no secret of it.

In my parish at Miihlheim there was an old priest
who was a perfect model of devotion. He gave all
he had to the poor. He took his meals with the
humblest at the people’s canteen we had opened in
our factories for the families of the unemployed. I
had the greatest admiration for this man. 1 asked
him one day, “ Is there anything I can do for you ? **
He replied, “ My greatest desire is to have a beautiful
baptismal chapel in my church.” After his death,
some months later, I gratified his wish. And I ordered
a beautiful carved stone for the fonts fiom the
Benedictines of the famous Abbey of Maria Laach.
These monks have revived religious art in Germany ;

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

243

they have rediscovered the old secrets of the medieval
ecclesiastical sculpture. The carving of the stone took
two years. But it turned out a work of art. The
chapel was consecrated in 1937 and my grandson
was the first to be baptised there.

In a normal country, there would have been
nothing out of the common in a Catholic building a
chapel. But in Nazi Germany, this was considered
a demonstration against the regime. The inhabitants
of Miihlheim knew that I was the founder. They
made no mistake about it. And the church was
always full.

On the occasion of the death of Pope Pius XI, I
sent the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne a public
telegram of condolence in which I assured him of my
unshakable devotion and that of my family to the
Catholic faith. Here again, this would have been
nothing unusual in a normal country. But shortly
after, Himmler’s sinister lieutenant, Heydrich, was
sent to Essen to make a personal investigation on my
account, especially concerning my attitude in matters
of religion. It is perhaps owing to the intervention
of the Gauleiter, Terboven, that nothing happened
to me at that time. But the fact that one of the
foremost industrialists of the region had openly
manifested his religious convictions had displeased
the Nazis.

They are used to greater compliance. I will give
an instance. Albert Vogler, who succeeded me as
the head of the United Steel Works after my departure
from Germany, has a brother, Eugen Vogler. He is
the general manager of the Hochtief Building Company
at Essen. This enterprise, one of the most important
in Germany, is mainly owned by the Vdgler brothers.

244

1 PAID HITLER

The National Socialist regime builds, and the
Hochtief Company is one of its principal builders.
It has worked on the new motor highways ; it has
built the new Chancellery of the Reich, which cost
over twenty million marks. It erected in Nuremberg
those immense constructions of concrete and stone
which, for one week of every year, house the Nazi
Party Congress, But Eugen Vogler has also been
called upon to undertake orders of a more private
character. He has built the great power generator
which furnishes the electric current for Hitler’s
residence at Obersalzberg and the neighbouring
offices, the theatre, the villas and hotels. The
Fuhrer’s greatest compliment to the Hochtief Com-
pany was to order it to build his “ eyrie,” his Parsifal’s
castle on the rocks of Obersalzberg. I myself have
never visited this Wagnerian sanctuary of the Holy
Grail, but no one has better described it than the French
ambassador Fran9ois-Poncet in a letter reproduced
in the French Yellow Booky part of which I quote :

From a distance, the place looks like a kind of observa-
tory or small hermitage perched up at a height of 6,000
feet on the highest point of a ridge of rock. The approach
is by a winding road about nine miles long, boldly cut
out of the rock ; the boldness of its construction does as
much credit to the ability of the engineer Todt as to the
unremitting toil of the workmen who in three years com-
pleted this gigantic task. The road comes to an end in
front of a long underground passage leading into the
mountain, and closed by a heavy double door of bronze.
At the far end of the underground passage a wide lift,
panelled with sheets of copper, awaits the visitor. Through
a vertical shaft of 330 feet cut right through the rock, it
rises up to the level of the Chancellor’s dwelling-place.
Here is reached the astonishing climax. The visitor finds

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

245

himself in a strong and massive building containing a
gallery with Roman pillars, an immense circular hall with
windows all round and a vast open fireplace where enor-
mous logs arc burning, a table surrounded by about
thirty chairs, and opening out at the sides, several sitting-
rooms, pleasantly furnished with comfortable arm-chairs.
On every side, through the bay-windows, one can look as
from a plane high in the air, on to an immense panorama
of mountains. At the far end of a vast amphitheatre one
can make out Salzburg and the surrounding villages,
dominated, as far as the eye can reach, by a horizon of
mountain ranges and peaks, by meadows and forests
clinging to the slopes. In the immediate vicinity of the
house, which gives the impression of being suspended in
space, an almost overhanging wall of bare rock rises up
abruptly. The whole, bathed in the twilight of an autumn
evening, is grandiose, wild, almost hallucinating. The
visitor wonders whether he is awake or dreaming. He
would like to know where he is — whether this is the Castle
of Monsalvat where lived the Knights of the Graal or a
new Mount Athos sheltering the meditations of a cenobite,
or the palace of Antinea rising up in the heart of the Atlas
Mountains. Is it the materialisation of one of those
fantastic drawings with which Victor Hugo adorned the
margins of his manuscript of Les Burgraves^ the fantasy of a
millionaire, or merely the refuge where brigands take
their leisure and hoard their treasures ? Is it the conception
of a normal mind, or that of a man tormented by megalo-
mania, by a haunting desire for domination and solitude,
or merely that of a being in the grip of fear ?

“ One detail ^cannot pass unnoticed, and is no less
valuable than the rest for someone who tries to assess the
psychology of Adolf Hitler : the approaches, the openings
of the underground passage and the access to the house are
manned by soldiers and protected hy nests of machine
guns. . .

* Reprinted by permission of Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd

246

1 PAID HITLER

But such high favours must be earned. .And the
general manager of the Hochtief Company, Eugen
Vogler, has shown himself worthy of them. In 1938,
he officially abandoned the Protestant Church. He
might have said, like old Kirdorf at ninety, that he
believed in Mathilde Ludendorff, the wife of the
general, who founded a religion and claimed to have
discovered the great secret of life. He might also
have said that Wotan had appeared to him in a dream
and that he had been converted to Germanism. As
a matter of fact, he did nothing of the sort. One fine
day Eugen Vogler wrote a business letter to his pastor.
He explained, without any attempt to sugar the pill,
that the interests of his firm required him to leave the
Church. As the accredited contractor of the grandees
of a regime which was hostile to Christianity, he owed
it to himself and to his business to recant.

Such gestures are appreciated in Nazidom. They
enable the regime to form an estimate of a character
and to dominate a conscience. The Nazis encountered
more resistance among the Catholics. But even in
religious matters they utilise such traitors as they are
able to enlist. The head of the “ Catholic ” section
of the Gestapo at Berlin is an unfrocked priest.

The Catholic religion is still being persecuted.
But, notwithstanding all his efforts. Hitler has not
succeeded in breaking the spirit of the Church. The
bishops stand firm. From the pulpit and in the
confessional the clergy have sustained the resistance of
their flocks. Despite some few cases of individual
weakness, the Catholic Church will emerge stronger
from its fight against the Nazi’s neo>paganism and
barbarity.

By his attacks on Catholicism, in particular in our

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

247

Rhenish regions, Hitler has reopened old wounds.
Bismarck’s Kulturkampf* had left painful memories.
They were not finally surmounted till the last years.
Catholics and Protestants did their duty to the Father-
land, shoulder to shoulder. At the time of the passive
resistance in the Ruhr, the Catholics proved their
unshakable loyalty to the full. The Cardinal Arch-
bishop and the clergy of Cologne encouraged our
patriotic action. Hitler is therefore a monster of
ingratitude to persecute the Rhenish Catholics on the
lying pretext that one cannot be a good Catholic and
a good German at the same time. It is true, of
course, that the Nazis have made it impossible.

I, like many other conservative Catholics, had hoped
that the National Socialists would remain true to
their programme and respect Christianity. I tried
to exercise my influence in this direction. I suggested
that Goering should appoint to the council of state
Dom Hildefonse Herwegen, the Benedictine abbot of
Maria Laach, one of the most venerable personalities of
German Catholicism. Goering preferred to nominate
Monsignor Berning, the Bishop of Osnabriick. But
the fact that he did appoint a high cleric shows that
at the beginning of the regime some of the Nazi
leaders considered the Catholic Church as a positive
factor in the new Germany.

The anti-Christian attitude of Rosenberg, Hitler,
and Goebbels, and the immoral brutality of the whole
National Socialist system, have ruined what possibilities
existed after the concordat. The ignoble methods
which the Nazis were not ashamed to employ and their
hatred of all that is Catholic have revolted the Rhenish
population. The wounds thus reopened are incurable.

* See Historical Notes at end of chapter, page 250.

248

I PAID HITLER

A deep gulf has been opened between Catholic
Germany and the rest of the country. Never will the
Catholics tolerate a reversion to such methods. They
refuse to be treated by a Berlin government as if they
were second-rate citizens or bad Germans. I, for my
part, would never admit this. This anti-Gatholic
mentality must be done away with once for all.

In my schooldays I protested against a teacher of
history who had insulted the popes. The teacher
replied that what he taught was in accordance with
the text-books. I rejoined that not everything con-
tained in a Prussian history book was necessarily true.
I was severely punished for that remark. The
situation soon became impossible and my father had
to take me away from the school. But he had the
greatest difficulty in finding another Prussian college
that agreed to accept a Catholic pupil guilty of
rebellion.

During the last war I was attached as adjutant to
a general commanding a division pn the western
front. One day, when we were riding together, the
general said to me, I think a great deal of you, but
I have to be careful because you are a Catholic and
in the last resort you obey the Pope.’^

It was this Prussian distrust of Catholicism that lay
at the root of Bismarck’s Kulturkampf. The Nazis,
who have invented the totalitarian state, have not
only retained this traditional Prussian hostility to
Catholicism, but they have made it worse.

This time, the cup is running over. The Rhenish
Catholics refuse to begin this painful experience all
over again. Since Berlin considers that our religion
is incompatible with patriotism and devotion to one’s
country, we shall draw the logical conclusions.

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION

249

Historical Notes

Nietzsche and his Superman

National Socialism has attempted to falsify Nietzsche’s
work and to represent this great German philosopher as
a precursor of the Nazi racial doctrine and the “ Blood and
Soil ” theory. The truth is that Nietzsche found no
greater object of scorn, in many of his works, than the
inflated pan-Germanic mind. The “ superman,” as
represented in his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra^
has quite a different aspect from the prospective “ leaders ”
produced in the National Socialist leadership schools
{Ordensburgen) y Nietzsche’s “ superman ” was the man
living in solitude on the summit, because by his spiritual
superiority he had overcome everything that Nietzsche
considered to be prejudices and traditional nonsense.

The Scandinavian Edda

The collection of Germanic sagas which constitutes the
basis of Germanic mythology. The Edda supplied
Richard Wagner with his material for the Ring 0^ the
Nibelungs.

The Knights of the Teutonic Order

A religious order of Prussian knights, which was estab-
lished in order to spread Christianity in the territories
east of Prussia. The Teutonic Knights colonised vast
stretches in the Baltic regions, where they ruled with
particular cruelty. They also penetrated into Poland and
Russia.

The Concordats

“ Concordat ” was originally the name given to a treaty
between the Papal See and the Emperors of Germany,
In recent times, the concordats between the Vatican and

250

I PAID HITLER

Prussia or Germany provided for the regulation of the
rights of Catholics in Germany to profess their religion.
They decided, in particular, upon the manner in which
bishops and certain professors of Catholic theology are to
be appointed in agreement with the Papal Court. More-
over, they regulated the exercise of canonic law and
limited the freedom of preaching. The present Pope,
Pius XII, when under his family name of Pacelli he was
Papal nuncio in Berlin, succeeded in negotiating a con-
cordat with Otto Braun, then Premier of Prussia. The
agreement was faithfully kept as long as there was a
democratic government in Prussia.

The Kulturkampf

This is the name given to the conflict begun by Bismarck
in 1875, under the pretext that several measures taken by
the Holy See represented interferences with the govern-
ment’s powers — in Germany in general and Prussia in
particular. Since almost half of Germany’s population
was Catholic, Bismarck’s step aroused widespread indigna-
tion*. As the Catholics followed the leadership of their
priests, the conflict gradually degenerated into persecution
of the clergy. A few years later Bismarck was obliged to
yield to Rome and make peace with the Church. How-
ever, the Kulturkampf has left its traces in Germany to
this day, in the form of the Catholic Centre party, which
was originally founded as a medium of self-protection,
and which, after playing an essential part in the Reichstag
opposition, became one of the most important govern-
ment parties in post-war Germany.

PART FOUR

GERMANY AND THE FUTURE OF
THE WORLD

CHAPTER ONE

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

The Exhaustion of Germany’s Industrial
Equipment

O NE day, when the time comes for concluding a
peace, one of the not-so-easy problems will
be the re-organisation of German economy. German
propaganda must not lead us to the false belief that
National Socialist economic practice has not been a
complete failure. There is no integrated plan in
Germany, as I have already pointed out in an earlier
chapter. Hitler knows absolutely nothing about
econoniic matters ; and he has always trusted those
advisers whose counsel happened to be the most
convenient at the time. All he has insisted on is
getting the disposal of the large sums of money which
he needed for his favourite plans, such as the arterial
motor roads and re-armament.

Of course it is possible for a government to spend
money for unproductive purposes. They may use,
let us say, 20 per cent, of the revenue. But they must
not swallow up 80 per cent., as they have done in

253

254

I PAID HITLER

Germany. For after all such money as is not raised
by taxation must be amortised. But in Germany no
one thinks of such details.

It is also necessary that the most important economic
questions should be freely discussed by people who
know something about them. That includes, among
others, the leaders of industry. So far as I can re-
member, .this has been done properly only in a single
and very minor case, namely the regulation of the
druggists’ trade. In that one instance Goering asked
for the names of the three best pharmacists in Ger-
many. These rendered an expert opinion, and as a
result the matter was handled correctly. But when
it came to more important things, to questions of
fundamental economic significance, no such procedure
was followed. In such cases the course chosen was
always the one that seemed the simplest at the moment.

First of all, there was the question of inflation. One
day the monstrous inflation which has long existed
in Nazi Germany will become evident, and enormous
difficulties will be the result. Above all, the peasants
will realise that the money no longer has any value,
and they will refuse to sell their products. At that
moment everything will be finished. A Communistic
solution would be possible only if, as in Russia, the
peasants constituted 8o per cent, of the population.
Since that is not the case in Germany, a Communistic
system is not practicable at all. In Russia conditions
are quite different. There the industrial workers,
comprising 20 per cent., provide the remaining 80 per
cent, of the people with the products which they very
much need.

It is impossible to imagine how difficult it is for
a manufacturer, in the circumstances existing in

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

255

Germany, to direct the management of his works.
Obviously the day consists of a limited number of
hours, and half of the owner’s time is taken up in
discussions with people who are ignorant of all the
pertinent facts. Even Goering is without knowledge,
although he occupies the position of supreme economic
leadership in the Germany of to-day. All he knows
is how to spend money. Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, as
minister of economy, permitted himself to be driven
much too far by the Nazi government’s demands.
Originally, no doubt, he organised the famous Stand-
still Agreements with foreign countries in good faith.
His definite intention was to pay back eventually
the foreign credits which were thus suspended. But
he had reckoned without his host. His first mistake
was to prevent the German industrialists who had
received private credits from paying their debts.
For instance, the United Steel Works, with which I
was closely associated, would undoubtedly have been
able to meet their obligations if the government had
not forbidden it. It was always assumed abroad that
Schacht acted with the consent of German industry,
but this was decidedly not the case.

The whole manner in which the Standstill Agree-
ments were reached seems to me especially interesting,
particularly for the lack of foresight shown by the
leading economic circles — even before the Hitler
regime. The first great mistake was to p)ermit the
General Credit Institution {Allgemeine Kreditanstalt) of
Vienna to crash. Director General Vogler and I
were at that time in Vienna as representatives of the
foreign creditors. The Dutch administrator of bank-
ing in Austria (representing the League of Nations)
expressly warned both of us, and asked us to teU

256 I PAID HITLER

Dr. Luther, the former chancellor, who was president
of the Reichsbank at the time, that the bank disaster
which happened in Vienna would be repeated in
Berlin. But Dr. Luther answered, ‘‘ Nothing can
happen to us at all ; we have so much money.’*
Actually he had at that moment the very considerable
gold reserve of two billion marks. But when the
Darmstadter Bank got into difficulties because the
foreign countries demanded repayment of their loans,
he surrendered by far the greater part of this gold
reserve.

The German bank crashes which followed were at
that time considered a consequence of Germany’s
reparations obligations. This, however, was in no
wise the case. For in the meantime America, in
particular, had lent large sums to Germany which
were certainly not used for the payment of repara-
tions. The debts in question were private debts,
which had nothing whatever to do with reparations.

Immediately after the bank failures Germany
decreed the strict government control of foreign ex-
change. Under the conditions of this planned economy
all private business had to surrender its entire stock
of foreign specie. And as armament production ex-
panded, foreign money became progressively scarce,
especially such funds as were available for foodstuffs
and raw materials for non-armament industries. I
still remember a time when ores were offered to
certain manufacturers. They applied to the Reichs-
bank, but were not given any foreign exchange.
They therefore had to abandon the deal. Similar
difficulties were encountered in the procuritig of
necessary credits. I know of a case where a credit
was granted, and part of it repaid. But after the

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

257

Standstill Agreement the Reichsbank no longer paid
any attention to requests for permission to remit.
There was simply a scarcity of foreign exchange, due
to excessive armament production, and even the most
urgent private obligations could no longer be honoured.
Both industry and trade suffered ; branches so im-
portant to Germany as the fur trade could not get
any foreign exchange at all. On the other hand the
armament industry got all it wanted.

I remember, too, a case where a fairly large amount
of scrap was purchased in the United States. The
American firm dealt through a Jewish concern in
London. The scrap had been promised, because it
was not known in London that it was intended for
Germany. When the Jewish dealers found it out
they did not at first want to complete the deal ;
but in the end prompt payment proved so attractive
that the German armament industry obtained the
merican scrap.

German conditions would probably have developed
still more unfavourably, if the Nazis had not taken
over from their predecessors very large industrial
stocks, as well as a quite respectable gold reserve.
Briining, as chancellor, had pursued a deflationary
policy which had made Germany a land of bulging
inventories. The great flow of foreign loans into
Germany at that time had the effect of inflating
stocks. The dollars of the private loans of industry
and banks went to the Reichsbank, while a corre-
sponding sum in marks was credited to the owners.
These marks were promptly used to lay in as many
goods as possible. In this way Briining prepared the
situation very well for the Nazis — so well, in fact,
that the Nazis ought to have honoured him with a

258 I PAID HITLER

monument. Thus he became the pacemaker for the
Nazis’ spending policies. In addition, his deflationary
policy led the country into a general economic crisis.
In this way the above-mentioned economic processes
were automatically augmented.

For my own factories I always executed ore pur-
chases a year in advance. There was a depression
in 1928-1929 and the question arose for us whether
to buy ore and how much. In this case we thought
we were cautious in buying 80 per cent, of the amount
of the previous year. But employment fell to 25 per
cent, with the result that very large unprocessed stocks
remained. Similar conditions obtained in many con-
cerns, in the iron and other industries. At the outset
Nazi economy lived on these accumulated stocks.

It is legitimate to ask how Schacht could ever
bring himself to tolerate so fraudulent an economy.
Personally I do not doubt that originally he desir^
to manage with all honesty, and that he simply had
, no far-seeing conception of the economic development
of the situation he found. His elimination from
the government apparatus came when conditions de-
veloped to a point where he no longer felt able to
assume the responsibility. Among other things the
great industrial establishments had been burdened
with expenditures which the state itself should have
borne. As an example the I. G, Farben Industrie
helped the Nazis a great deal — among other things
by paying their propaganda agents abroad. That,
by the way, was also done by many other private
concerns. All of these expenditures were offset by
corresponding mark credits in Germany, and thus
the Nazis were able to make use of the large amounts
in foreign currency which remamed abroad. That,

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

259

incidentally, is one of the reasons why foreign govern-
ments had such difficulty in discovering how Nazi
propaganda was financed. Naturally all this meant
a strain upon private balances which could not but
lead to unbearable conditions in the end.

But when there was no other way out, payments
were made with false bills of exchange. I am pre-
cisely informed about the 'matter because I was at
the time president of the Bank of Industrial Obliga-
tions. We were approached with the demand to
endorse a whole parcel of artificial bills. The manage-
ment refused, declaring that this was not permissible
under the by-laws of the bank, since the bank received
no kind of equivalent for the bills. Thereupon the
bank was served with a declaration from the minister
of justice to the effect that the bank would not be called
upon to be responsible for the bills. The government
would discount them at the Reichsbank. We could sign
with perfect peace of mind, we were told ; we would
not be called upon, our signature notwithstanding.

The Bank of Industrial Obligations was a very
powerful institution. Among other things it had
loaned an enormous sum to agriculture. Its signature
had always been honoured by industry as a whole. It
had a very large capital. But its directors finally had
no choice but to yield to the government’s demand.

The bills, as I afterwards learned, were placed
mostly with the savings banks and the state social
insurance system. And that especially made the
transaction so criminal. The poor j>eople in Germany
are, in general, trusting. The workman has a certain
feeling of security ; he feels that nothing can happ>en
to him in his old age. He is satisfied with a relatively
small old-age pension. But he does at least want to

258

I PAID HITLER

It is legitimate to ask how Schacht could ever
bring himself to tolerate so fraudulent an economy.
Personally I do not doubt that originally he desired
to manage with all honesty, and that he simply had
no far-seeing conception of tlie economic development
of the situation he found. His elimination from
the government apparatus came when conditions de-
veloped to a point where he no longer felt able to
assume the responsibility. Among other things the
great industrial establishments had been burdened
with expenditures which the state itself should have
borne. As an example the I. G. Farben Industrie
helped the Nazis a great deal — among other things
by paying their propaganda agents abroad. That,
by the way, was also done by many other private
concerns. All of these expen^tures were offset by
corresponding mark credits in Gernuny, and thus
the Nazis were able to make use of the large amounts
in foreign currency which remained abroad. That,

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

259

But when there was no other way out, payments
were made with false bills of exchange. I am pre-
cisely informed about the ^matter because I was at
the time president of the Bank of Industrial Obliga-
tions. We were approached with the demand to
endorse a whole parcel of artificial bills. The manage-
ment refused, declaring that this was not permissible
under the by-laws of the bank, since the bank received
no kind of equivalent for the bills. Thereupon the
bank was served with a declaration from the minister
of justice to the effect that the bank would not be called
upon to be responsible for the bills. The government
would discount them at the Reichsbank. We could sign
with perfect peace of mind, we were told ; we would
not be called upon, our signature notwithstanding.

The bills, as I afterwards learned, were placed
mostly with the savings banks and the state social
insurance system. And that especially made the
transaction so criminal. The poor people in Germany
are, in general, trusting. The workman has a certain
feeling of security ; he feels that nothing can happen
to him in his old age. He is satisfied with a relatively
small old-age pension. But he does at least want to

26 o

I PAID HITLER

be sure that in later life he is free from care. And
it is just this class which has been made the victim ;
the people who blindly believe in their beloved Fiihrer
are the ones to lose their money.

The whole process is nothing less than the em-
bezzlement of the minimum of four hundred marks
which every German worker pays into the social
insurance system of the Reich. In reality, therefore,
it is the common people who pay the enormous
expenses of the War. I am writing this with emphasis,
in order to open the German people’s eyes.

After the resignation of Schacht such methods were
used exclusively. I consider the money as lost, and
it is my opinion that the workers’ insurance system
will have to be reconstructed on a new basis. For
when, one day, the people realise that they have
lost their competence, they will be desperate. For
this reason some of the employers have created private
guarantees for their workmen. They have established
savings banks at the factories. Here all the money
paid in is paid back, and large reserves have been
accumulated for these institutions in the course of
time. For this reason many workmen are already
very grateful to their employing concerns. They
have begun to un4erstand that the state has aban-
doned them, while it still protects their factory.

In the autumn of 1934 I went to Argentina for a
few months. This was after the murders of Rohm
and Schleicher, and I was anxious to breathe some
purer air. I want to repeat here once again that
the Rohm affair was rank bestiality. The leaders of
the SA had been assembled by agreement with Hitler,
and this same gathering was afterwards used as
evidence of their treasonable plans. One must search

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

261

widely and long in the records of history before find-
ing so despicable an act. Shortly after the murder
of Schleicher, by the way, I asked Goering just what
had been the matter with Schleicher. Goering an-
swered that it had been proved that he had been in
treasonable intercourse with the French ambassador.
At the same time, however, Hitler accused the general
of connections with Stalin !

So I was glad to escape from this witches’ cauldron
for a while. I continued my travels until the spring
of 1935, and in Argentina I came to understand —
through a number of examples — the foolishness of
the German commercial policy, which attempted to
achieve self-sufficiency (or “ autarchy ”) for the Reich.
I was received by the president of Argentina. He
said, Won’t you do something to make Germany
buy some of our Argentine meat ? ” That was in
reply to my request that Argentina should place some
sizable orders with German industry. The president
was willing enough, if Germany would only buy more
meat in his country. For he was anxious to show
the English that other people, too, buy Argentine
meat. I reported this to Hitler when I returned to
Germany. He agreed. But Darre, the minister of
agriculture, rejected everything. * He didn’t want a single
kilogram of meat from Argentina. This is a sample of
the workings of the absurd Nazi government machine.

Later on I was again in the Argentine. By then
a commercial agreement had become much more
difficult to realise. We would have done better to
buy the meat and throw it overboard, for at least
we could have negotiated a better industrial agree-
ment. But the most injured man in the whole business
was the German worker, who did not get sufficient

262

I PAID HITLER

meat, while the English workers in normal times have
got plenty of excellent meat. The fault lies, of course,
with the whole principle of autarchy. Certainly a
limitation of imports is necessary, but an idiotic
autarchy such as Germany aspires to is impossible.
That is the result of having blockheads like Darre in
important posts.

The following considerations will show how wrong
such a policy is. In all European countries fertilisa-
tion with animal dung is still necessary, and all peasants
keep livestock to that end. It is therefore a first
principle of any farming policy to provide the means
of procuring cheap fodder. Plentiful cheap fodder
cannot be had except by importing it from abroad.
No wonder the peasants are disgruntled : once they
got their chance, the whole Nazi swindle would be
over in a week. As yet, however, the peasants dare
not say a word, much less risk an overt act.

The famous barter agreements which Germany has
been making with other countries for years (under
which goods are exchanged for goods instead of
money) have again and again proved to be nonsensical.
In Italy, for instance, one may buy, for one mark,
books which in Germany cost ten. But that is by
no means the worst example. For instance, Germany
exported books to Hungary in exchange for maize.
But the Hungarians didn’t want any books, so what
did they do ? They raised the price of the maize
they sent to Germany commensurately with the price
they were charged for the books ! In Rumania, too,
Germany had to pay double the price for maize in
the barter trade. There are many other examples
I might cite.

In the future economic order it will certainly not

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE

263

be possible to let industry manage quite independently.
The state will always have to exercise a measure of
control. But on the other hand it is wrong to think
that industry merely wants to earn profits. In reality
we industrialists have just one worry : how to keep
our factories busy. If prices are raised, the demand
falls off. And production is more important than
price. In the meetings of industrialists energetic
words are often spoken in the interest of lower prices.
Not, of course, because the industrialists are unselfish,
or anxious to give their products away cheaply, but
because they have learned that high prices are bad
for business.

But as soon as there is overproduction there is an
unhealthy fall of prices. For when there are too
many factories, prices sink so low that wage and
salary reductions inevitably follow, and thus starts
the descending spiral which leads to depression. Many
owners of industries, unfortunately, believe that all is
.well so long as their machines are occupied. But it
is my opinion — and this will be of great importance
for the future of Europe — that certain industries must
make agreements among themselves, not only nation-
ally, but internationally. I am a partisan of the great
cartels, so as to eliminate exaggerated competition
and enmity between concerns. What such competi-
tion can lead to is to be seen from the fact that from
time to time steel rails have been sold cheaper than
the price of pig-iron. Irrational lowering of prices
is just as wrong as unjustified increase.

However, cartels are good only for large industries
— the heavy ’’ industries, the chemical industry,
coal mining, and textile manufacture. The worker
is aljways inclined to believe that cartels are directed

264

I PAID HITLER

against him, but that is not true. Stability of wages
can be achieved only when the price of the product
is stable too. In general, however, the government
is much less sensible than the workman. For the
state would like to deprive business of everything —
and that is true especially of the Nazi state. The
worker, on the other hand, has understood that you
have to leave to enterprise enough surplus for the
development of its plant.

It must not be forgotten that Germany’s industrial
equipment has been almost completely used up,
especially in heavy industry, where machines wear
out much faster than, for instance, in textile mills.
In the latter a machine may last twenty years, whilfe
in heavy industry the life of the average machine is
limited to five. And especially so in certain kinds
of shops, for instance the rolling mill.

Another thing to remember is that the Germans
are still ignorant bf the fact that many plants will
have to be completely modernised. In the United
States a veritable technical revolution has been at
work. This is true, for instance, in the manufacture
of tin plate. Here is a branch of industry with an
eilormous consumers’ demand. American technicians
have invented a new process. There are twenty-four
tin-plate works in the United States ; only two exist
in Germany. German tin-plate production requires
five thousand workmen ; with the new process, the
same production would require only five hundred.
But the necessary modernisation will cost a great deal
of money. Shops, such as exist in America, cost at
lezist ten million dollars to build and equip. And if
German industry does not switch to the new process,
it will drop out of the race. For the tin plate produced

FRAUDULENT NAZI FINANCE '265

in the United States to-day is of much better quality
than ours.

Of course, one would have to treat with the displaced
workmen and find them new jobs. In any case,
careful deliberations will be necessary if a solution is
to be found. It may be possible, for instance, to find
places for superfluous labour in the automobile in-
dustry. But it will not be simple. There are districts
in Germany, such as the Siegerland, where most of
the workmen have their own houses and gardens.
Th6y are half factory-worker and half farmer. For
such cases it might even be necessary to create a new
industry, in order to avoid driving people from their
bit of soil. But if nothing is done, the German tin-
plate industry will be dead in five years.

All these questions are questions of the future ; but
they are of the greatest importance for German
economy. For the extreme regimentation of German
industry under the National Socialists has completely
ruined its factories through excessive exploitation.
Some industrial improvements have, of course, laken
place in Germany as well, but in comparison with
America (where business men do not have our
troubles !) this amounts to nothing at all.

Nevertheless, I have hope for the future development
of Europe. I believe, too, that one may be hopeful
for its future in a spiritual sense. There will surely
be something like a resuscitation of democracy. But
I am of opinion that it will have to be accompanied
by a revival of faith.

The past century, it is well known, was largely an
irreligious one. Scientists believed they cftuld explsdn
everything, both physical and metaphysical. Some

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I PAID HITLER

time ago a Dutch writer named Huizinga wrote a
very good book, in which he says that under the
influence of the great discoveries the masses were
taught that science could explain everything, and the
masses believed in their scientists. Then, suddenly,
came still more scientific discoveries. Man discovered
that the smallest molecule, or electron, is a universe
in itself. Einstein arrived with his theory of re-
lativity. Suddenly people saw that we are further
removed from truth than ever. Both Planck, the
German physicist, and Huizinga believe that we must
go back to faith. Planck, as is well known, is a friend
of Einstein. To-day few scientists are convinced that
man has succeeded in discovering all the basic secrets
of the universe. Nothing remains, therefore, but to
return to faith.

Among ordinary people this development, thus far,
has had quite different results. After being assured
that everything can be explained, and after being
told that nothing remains to be explained, they no
longer believe in anything. Thus, because they do
not know what they are to believe, and because they
still want to believe, they do not believe in Christianity
and profess to believe only in a god whom they can
see. And that god, in Germany, is Hitler.

As for me, I have no doubt whatever that a return
to religion will come. For the German people will
experience a great disillusionment with its god Hitler,
who has not .made war by reason of his genius, but
because he slithered into it. War, in the last analysis,
came because nobody knew any longer what to do
next. Hitler believed he could impress the German
people witl#his attack on Poland, and so force them
into renewed admiration of their god.

CHAPTER TWO

GERMANY AT WAR: THE CHINKS
IN HER ARMOUR

W HAT I had feared, and what I wanted to avert
at the eleventh hour by publishing my corre-
spondence with the government of the Reich, has
happened after all. The total war against European
civilisation has begun, with all its devastating conse-
quences for the west, including my own homeland,
the region of the Rhine. The responsibility rests with
the Nazi leaders, who are playing their last card.
Their personal interest and the interest of their party
are not identical with the welfare of Germany.

In so far as I could, I have always given my opinion
openly, and I have always tried to throw my counsel
into the scales against war. The public, however,
imagines that heavy industry is always fundamentally
in favour of a war because it makes good profits out
of war. Nevertheless, I have maintained that the
opposite is true. I was able to do this only because
I was an industrialist and a Reichstag deputy at the
same time. As an industrialist I would never have
been permitted to utter my opinion. That I did it,
therefore, is no merit of mine.

• 267

268

I PAID HITLER

What I tried to point out, aside from the moral
aspect, was that Germany was not prepared for war.
Both for moral and political reasons I wished to avoid
the war. But I believed, too, that in the given circum-
stances war was not justifiable from the German side.
That is what I openly told General von Blomberg,
then minister of defence, so my point of view was
known exactly. In my last conversations with the
powers that be I said : “ If political facts of which I
am ignorant make war inescapable, it is necessary to
do everything that is humanly possible in order to
postpone its outbreak.” That was in July, 1939.

Even if one adopts Hitler’s point of view, one must
see that he committed a grave error, for he should
never have carried out his war plans in less than
five years, or even ten. This opinion of mine was
shared by most of the higher officers of the army.
They all wanted to proceed slowly with rearmament,
and in the higher army circles the current view was
that Germany should have waited at least another
five years. The young lieutenants, however, were
imbued with the gambling spirit ; they believed that
the war against the great democratic Powers would
be just as easy as the conquest of Poland proved to be.

But it is dangerous to lull the soldiers into false
hopes : it is not enough to win a few battles ; one
must win the war. One should remember what a
change in the army’s morale was caused by the last
great offensive of 1918. Before this offensive the
army’s power of resistance was not shaken. After
it, however, everything was changed, as if by a miracle.
And the army of to-day is not the army of the World
War of 1914-1918. Its general staff no doubt is very
good. But the officers’ corps and the non-commis-

GERMANY AT WAR I CHINKS IN HER ARMOUR 269

sioned officers are a different story. All of them to-
day are even less educated than they were in 1918.
And it is very doubtful whether they will be equal
to the emotional shocks which are a foregone con-
clusion in case of a long war.

Germany’s armaments, great as they may be in
an absolute sense, are by no means complete. In
certain parts they do not correspond to the ideas
about them which are current in the world. I shall
show this by a few examples.

To begin with, there is aviation. In this branch,
no doubt, a great deal has been accomplished. It is
incredible to me that other countries did not discover
this. If they discovered it, they seem to have believed
— until the last moment — that they could reach an
understanding with Germany on a tolerable basis.
Years before the war Hitler deceived England by
asserting that he was prepared to make a limitation
agreement to cover air forces and military strength
in general. He proposed such a convention on the
basis of an army of 360,000, This was publicly done.

I believed from the beginning that this was a decep-
tion, but it was taken seriously both in Germany and
in the Allied countries. Later on, again in public,
he declared that the Allies had not even answered
his proposal. As German propaganda, this was a
tremendous success. Adolf Hitler was now considered
to be completely justified if he continued to arm.

Industrialists did not have much influence, and,
as I have related, I personally had been in conflict
with the Reich government since 1935. The principal
mistake was made by Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, for at
this moment he was the strongest man, both for the
party and the army. If at that time he had warned

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I PAID HITLER

that the Nazis’ course was dangerous, the leading
buisness groups would have taken notice. Schacht »
was by no means in agreement with the measures
which he knew the government was taking ; but he
thought that things could be still arranged before it was
too late. High officers’ circles were deeply depressed.
They always felt that progress was made too fast, at the
cost of the quality which they deemed indisj>ensable.

As late as the occupation of Austria these officers
had been able to observe the general confusion
which developed. Later on there were the general
manoeuvres in the Eifel region, west of the Rhine.
At these manoeuvres one general was quite desperate,
because everything went wrong.

When the National Socialists came to power
Germany had, perhaps, four military airplanes in all.
All the ’•aviation factories were bankrupt. Only
Heinkel and Junkers were working. The founder of
the Junkers Works was not a really professional manu-
facturer. He was rather a very gifted professor who
was preoccupied with new models ; and his factories
were constantly being used for ^trying out the new
types which he constructed. That, of course, reacted
on the commercial capacity of his plants. The
Junkers Works always had to be subsidised by the
state, because the few existing airplane factories had
to be preserved.

Naturally, right from the start of the Nazi regime
the revival of aviation was a thing particularly close
to Captain — now Field Marshal — Goering’s heart. He
had been a flier in the World War of 1914-1918.
Goering begged me to help him. So we attached to
him a gentleman who submitted plans to him on
a big scale. That was Herr Koppenberg, who was

GERMANY AT WAR : CHINKS IN HER ARMOUR 27 1

placed in the technical department of the Junkers
Works and who soon made the establishment hum.
What he accomplished, from the ground up, in two
years was really remarkable. Koppenberg had been
in America and he applied to the Junkers Works the
processes he had observed in the United States. In
this way a genuine production plant was made out
of - the shop which had hitherto been only a sort of
laboratory. But Goering never set foot in it, which
made Koppenberg quite unhappy. He carried out
his order, to produce mainly bombers, in brilliant
fashion. Indeed, this had always been the hobby-
horse of Junkers himself. To a large extent Koppen-
berg used Diesel motors for his planes.

One of the essential materials in making airplanes is
wire. At the beginning this wire was imported from
England. But one of the first things we did was to
encourage the German wire industry to produce these
airplane essentials at home. This was to a large
degree successful, so that the wire imports from
England stopped almost completely. The fact that
no further orders for wire arrived in England must
have considerably misled the English as to what went
on in Germany.

T his aeroplane wire has to be made of especially
good steel, particularly the wires which are used for
controls. By the end of 1934 the reconstruction of
the Junkers Works was already so far advanced that
moving belt production, on the American model,
could be introduced. Then Koppenberg so re-
arranged the Junkers production that special factories
were erected for all important parts. The various
parts were then assembled in a special assembly
plant. This method is the secret of the American'

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manufacturers’ success ; in this manner they are able
to continue production without interruption. To be
sure, America is noted for the quality of its materials ;
in Europe far too much is still being skimped. With-
out a doubt, however, German aviation manufacture
has gone very far ; it is most likely the farthest
advanced branch of German armament production.
But what good are aeroplanes without gasoline ? And
here we reach a question that is most important for
the striking power of German arms. An American
periodical has published an estimate of how much
gasoline the German army consumes in a day. This
estimate is calculated from the consumption of oil
in the Polish campaign, and it takes the conditions
obtaining in Poland as a basis. In Poland sixty
German divisions were in combat ; at this writing
the general estimate places the German army at one
hundred more or less motorised divisions. In Poland
about 15,000 tons of gasoline were consumed per
day. Therefore the present consumption would be
25,000 tons per day. But that covers only the
motorised army. Beyond that the air force requires
6,500 additional tons. Altogether this makes a require-
ment of well over 30,000 tons per day. But German
oil production is only 10,000 tons a day, and all of
Germany’s synthetic production is not suitable for
aviation. Accumulated stocks of aviation gasoline
do not exist. Up to the end of the Polish campaign
aviation gasoline production had not been provided
for. Special provisions should be made within the
synthetic oil industry for the production of gasoline
that can be used by planes. It is, of course, possible
to produce aviation gasoline from coal, but the plans
for this are still in their early stages.

GERMANY AT WAR I CHINKS IN HER ARMOUR 273

Gasoline is produced from coal by a process patented
by the I. G. Farben Industrie (Fischer-Drop). But
the gasoline thus extracted is much too light. It is
not even usable for automobiles, because of its light-
ness. The I. G. Farben process was originally based
on the invention of Bergius. It produces gasoline with
an octane content of only 800, while a 1,000-octane
content is needed for aviation motors. The factory
erected for synthetic gasoline production is very
beautiful, but the section which is intended to produce
aviation gasoline at this writing has been hardly begun.

Another important problem for the proper function-
ing of a flying corps is the personnel, i.e. the fliers.
The training of German pilots has proceeded much
too fast. Only in the year 1936 did Germany begin
to build aeroplanes in large quantities. I once had a
conversation with one of our best civil pilots. He
said : ‘‘ The training of a good bomber pilot requires
• from three to five years. I do not believe in the
excellence of the training which has been given in
Germany ; it is much too fast.”

(The army has been much more cautious. The
authorities were aware of the necessity of creating a
technically well-trained officers’ corps, all the more
so because this time Germany lacked the great
numbers of non-commissioned officers which were of
decisive importance in the World War of 1914-1918.)

In the matter of aviation I should like to add that
just as the chief of the Luftwaffe, Goering, always gave
his attention to what suited him, and nothing else
(I have already mentioned that he never visited the
Junkers Works), so his first assistant, Air Marshal
Milch, only bothered about airfields and nothing else.
To create good airfields in Germany is no great aft.

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For money is no consideration here. The best land
could be requisitioned for this purpose, regardless of
anything. (On the other hand, the proprietors from
whom land was bought for this purpose could make
whatever conditions they pleased. For instance, my
son-in-law retained the rights to the grass growing on
the land, which he sells to the military administration.)

There are some good examples of the general
wastefulness of the German military treasurer. In
the city of Krefeld the parade grounds had become
superfluous after the last war. They had been turned
into a beautiful golf links. When the time came for
Germany’s rearmament, Krefeld was of course to
become a garrison town again. So the parade
grounds had to be restored. The army wanted
particularly the golf links, whose landscaping would
have to be transformed for drill purposes. So they
built a new golf links next to the old one, gave it to
the owner of the old golf links, and built the parade
ground where it had been once before. That, of
course, is crazy ; but money is no object, as I have
often remarked before. Similarly, the riding academy
of Hanover was simply moved to Berlin.

But not only in the matter of rearmament is money
squandered. For instance, in Cologne the barracks
of the cuirassier regiment had been reconstructed to
make a very handsome museum. This museum lay
just opposite the Cologne cathedral. On this spot,
facing the great and venerable church, the Nazis have
built — by way of spiritual competition, as it were — a
huge party assembly hall. It didn’t bother these
people at all to tear down the museum, whose re-
construction had, of course, swallowed up a gigantic
sum* All these are only examples from my immediate

GERMANY AT WAR : CHINKS IN HER ARMOUR 275

neighbourhood, which I was able to observe in
detail.

Nevertheless there can be no doubt that the Nazis*
greatest accomplishment is rearmament in the air.
Much has been done, too, in motorisation of the army
— the great slogan of recent decades. But what has
been said about gasoline supply in connection with
aviation is equally valid for armoured trucks and
tanks. Before the war broke out, there was no previous
actual experience to show how the motorised troops
would function. In conversations with me one of
our generals gave expression to certain misgivings in
this regard. “ At the beginning,” he said, “ no doubt
all will go well. But what will happen later ? One
^eat difficulty, in particular, arises from the supply
of motorised troops with oil, since these troops advance
at great speed. It might be necessary to send a column
of oil-tank trucks after them, for secondary supply.”

In any case it has not yet been ascertained to what
degree so large an army as the German can be
effectively motorised. What has been done has with-
out doubt been done well. But it is my conviction
that really great, wide-sweeping battles cannot be
won by Panzer divisions alone. They are an excellent
weapon for piercing a front, but when the breach is
made, other troops must also be advanced in the
proper order. And so I believe, too, that the weak-
ness of an army which is lOO per cent mechanised lies
in the high measure of its mechanisation. How is all
this material to be kept in repair? For so fully a
mechanised army one should be able to maintain
repair shops everywhere, to make sure of success.
And the maintenance crews to serve these repair
shops must comprise a very considerable number in

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relation to the number of combat troops. Ideally
speaking, one ought to follow the example of Henry
Ford, whose repair shops are distributed over the
whole world, in Germany as well as in Brazil.

In contrast to aviation and motorised weapons,
German artillery is definitely bad. There are, of
course, large motorised cannon in considerable
quantity. But the commonly used Model 88 of the
field artillery is too heavy and too big. Five years
are not a long period for the design and production of
cannon. And the Germans have concentrated during
that time chiefly on anti-aircraft guns. But the last
war showed decisively the great importance of light
artillery. It is the artillery which gives to infantry the
necessary confidence in the field. Model 88 is excellent
for what it is ; it has a long range and great effective
power, but, as I said, it is too heavy for use in the field.

So far as I am acquainted with the facts, it was not
till 1938 that Germany began to make artillery
ordnance on the grand scale. In fact, this manu-
facture was not begun until the Nazis got control of
the Skoda Works of Bohemia, after the Czech crisis
of 1938. Already in the first World War the Skoda
Works were of great importance in the equipment of
the armies of Germany and its Austrian allies. The
mortars were never built by Krupp, but by Skoda.

In conclusion, I should like to say this about the
subject of German armament. Germany to-day
possesses a very good special steel, which can be
turned in the factories much faster than before. But
many essential machine tools are still lacking. They
should have been built before the outbreak of war, but
there was not time enough. This gap in German
armament production is probably the clue to the

GERMANY AT WAR : CHINKS IN HER ARMOUR 277

Nazis* effort to make this a blitzkrieg throughout.
The desire to apply to other countries the method of
swift piercing and overrunning, which has been
successfully carried through in Poland, has been
amply shown. Purely external evidence of this is
the fact that the German bomber squadrons were
permitted to carry on their activity without any
considerations of humanity, just as Goering has always
wanted it to be done. To me the most frightful
example is Rotterdam. This great commercial city
has always stood in close relation to Germany, and
many buildings there were German property. What
has been perpetrated in the destruction of that city is
indescribable. I cannot imagine that the French
would ever have destroyed Strassburg in so ruthless
a manner. All this simply shows the urge to get
ahead quickly ; that is the reason for spreading terror
on every side. No German in future will be able to
show himself in the world without shame. •

Some time ago, when Marshal Voroshiloff seemed
to be a danger to the Stalin regime, the story went
the rounds in Germany that Stalin would receive
Voroshiloff only if he left his weapons outside. I
don’t know whether Hitler nowadays, when he
receives his generals, has them searched for weapons
before they are admitted. He is certainly no longer
quite sure of them. In any case. Hitler is absurdly
protected. No doubt the reader is familiar with the
story which the former French ambassador in Berlin,
M. Frangois-Poncet, used to tell. The story is that
during one of his visits to Hitler a flower-pot fell over.
Instantly ten SS men appeared, rushing into the room
through all the doors.

Whether true or not, the story illustrates how Hitler

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has made himself safe. To-day Hitler can do any-
thing he wants, without having to fear any opposition ;
and so he has precipitated this war. But I am sure
that he will not win the war, and the responsibility
will be his.

Publisher's Note

•

It can hardly be questioned that an industrialist as
eminent as Fritz Thyssen is in a good position to judge
the state of Germany’s armaments. Although a few
things may have been going on in several branches of
German war industry that were not brought to his know-
ledge, his statements are to be trusted in so far as the
quality of German armaments is concerned. This quality,
he says, is uneven ; and when the war began a number
of economic pre-requisites, indispensable for the smooth
functioning of the German war machine in case of a pro-
longed conflict, had not been fulfilled. However, the
first stage ol the war in the west has shown that oppor-
tunities, especially of an economic nature, have offered
themselves to the German army in the course of the
hostilities ; and these opportunities had been reckoned
with by those political groups in Germany who thought it
possible to use the methods applied in the Polish cam-
paign in a war against the western democracies. That a
war which decides the fates of millions should not be based
on such speculations, need not be demonstrated at length.
However, Adolf Hitler has actually been able to conquer
Belgium and Holland in a Blitzkrieg y and to force France
to sign a not very honourable armistice, all this with an
army whose equipments were incomplete, as Fritz Thyssen
has probably justly described them. These facts seem to
corroborate the theory that so far Hitler’s war in western
Europe has been decided, not by the strength of arms but
much rather by the unscrupulous pioneer work of Fifth
Columnists and the treason committed by their allies in
Belgium, Holland and France.

CHAPTER THREE

THE PLACE OF THE TWO GERMANIES
IN A UNITED EUROPE

W HEN they declared war on Poland, Hitler and
his adviser, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had
not foreseen that this time France and Great Britain
would take up their challenge. Even after the Polish
campaign, to the very last moment preceding the
attack in the west, Hitler hoped that he would be
able to manipulate the two allied Powers by diplomacy
and propaganda. But when he realised the futility
of his efforts, he risked everything at one throw.
Ignoring the most solemn engagements, he invaded
three neutral countries in order to launch against
the two great western Powers the most formidable
attack known to history. “ Total war ” was un-
leashed with all its frightful consequences for western
Europe, including my native Rhineland.

Hitler will lose this war ; that is my conviction.
But Nazi nihilism has not shrunk from this barbarous
assault on European civilisation as a whole. Up to
the moment when I published the documents contain-
ing my protest against the war, I had still a faint
hope of being able to stop, if not Hitler himself, then
. 279

28 o

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at least those who have not lost all sense of responsibility
— of halting them on the brink of that abyss where
the folly of the Nazi chief has taken a whole people.
But are there still people in Germany who think
about the future ? And if there are, what can
they do ?

The responsibility for this total war, this assault on
all the human and Christian values of Western
civilisation rests with the Nazi leaders and with them
alone. It is they who have staked the whole future
of Germany on one card. What they are concerned
about is their own personal interest, the interest of
their party, the upholding of their tyrannical domina-
tion, but not the good of the country whose government
they have usurped.

Still, I am obliged to admit that up to the present
no one has been able to hold them back. The
German army executes their will.

For my own part, this crime put an end to any
scruples that I might have had. Europe cannot
survive still another modern war. Everything must
be done to make war impossible henceforth. It is
the future of mankind itself that is at stake, for the
destruction and the ruin of western Europe would
dry up for ever the spiritual sources from which our
present civilisation has sprung and to which it returns
for sustenance again and again.

When he founded the empire, Bismarck compared
the German people to a rider : “ Place it in the
saddle,” he said, “ and it will be able to ride.” These
were the words of a bold statesman who had confidence
in the German people. But the founder’s boldness
was combined with prudence and caution. For twenty
years he constantly watched his rider — showing him,

TWO GERMANIES IN A UNITED EUROPE 28 1

indeed, how to clear obstacles, but at the same time
preventing him from stumbling and from straying
into adventurous paths. At every turn Bismarck was
conscious of the difficulty of providing a reasonable
existence for the new empire within the European
framework. Never would he have applied Nietzsche’s
maxim, to “ live dangerously,” to the policy of a
great state. He had taken every precaution to assure
the political stability of the Reich. He himself drafted
its constitution. The Prussian monarchy was to
support the weight of the composite state, but the
federal form of government limited Prussia’s influence
within Germany, and compelled the emperor to take
account of the interests of each of the individual
states. In the federal upper house, the Imperial
Council, the vote of the ruling princes of the several
states balanced that of the king and emperor. On
the other hand, the Reichstag, elected by universal
suffrage, was designed to support and control the
central government by the people’s will. In com-
parison with a unified and centralised republic like
France this kind of institution appears to be
compligated in its functions. But it corresponded to
the historical development and the diversity of
Germany, the Germany which Bismarck’s bold and
successful manoeuvre had united into a great modern
state.

For twenty years, the new empire, under the
guidance of its founder, seemed to justify the hopes
which the latter had placed in it. In its foreign policy
it effected a reconciliation with the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, secured the friendship of the young kingdom
of Italy, and imposed the respect for its power upon a
France which had just been defeated, while carefully

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avoiding all provocation. At the same time Bismarck
sought to secure the friendship of Russia. He avoided
alienating England in the naval and colonial fields.
In twenty years he had placed Germany in the saddle
and had taught her to ride. Germany progressed in
all fields of endeavour. She enriched herself by her
labour and became prosperous.

By forcing this great minister to resign soon after
the beginning of his reign, William II placed all this
in jeopardy. Dazzled by the splendour of his imj>erial
dignity, imbued with his own authority, he was
incapable of using the delicate constitutional instru-
ment created by Bismarck. Under his reign, the
Prussian system, then foreign to the western and
southern parts of the country, extended its influence
to the whole of Germany. The German people,
forgetting its local traditions, attached itself to its
young emperor. Such sceptics as maintained a
reserved attitude were regarded as cranks with out-
moded ideas. Very soon the Germaji people was no
longer mounted on its own steed, according to the
words of Bismarck ; it was content to follow the lead
of the brilliant imperial equestrian in his shining
armour and helmet, without inquiring whither he
was bound. The Kaiser’s intentions were certainly
not batd. But like almost all Germans, he had no.
head for politics. The various mistakes which he
had committed forced him one fine day to resort to
force, in order , to save his face. This is the danger
that invariably accompanies a policy based on the
maintenance of prestige. Throughout his reign
William II never realised that politics were a question
of intelligence and that recourse to violence only
proved the lack of it.

TWO GERMANIES IN A UNITED EUROPE 283

The result of the unfortunate policy of William II
was the war of 1914 with its disastrous consequences,
not only for Germany, but for the world as a whole.

My greatest accusation against Hitler is that he has
once again led Germany into a war. It would have
been so easy to realise all his reasonable desires by
means of a sensible policy. He had only to live and
let live. Everyone would have agreed that the war
of 1914 had been the sequel of a series of political
mistakes. But this time Hitler brutally refused to
consider any solution based upon sound policy, and
he has wittingly thrust Europe into this new disaster.

I admit that Hitler, in Mein Kampf, revived the
insane aspirations of the Pan-Germans. But not even
the most Rightist circles in Germany ever took such
hysterical ideas seriously. He was barking up the
wrong tree.

The methods of the Hitlerian conquest in Poland,
as described in the official documents, show that what
we are witnessing is a relapse into barbarism in the
midst of the twentieth century. The aggressions
against Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and
Luxemburg afford further proof, if necessary, that, in
the exercise of the right of the stronger, Hitlerite
Germany, unrestrained by respect for the pledged
word and the law, openly flouts the indignation and
contempt of all civilised peoples. By extending the
battlefield to Holland, Belgium, and France, the
German army, under Hitler’s leadership, has attacked
some of the oldest and the most highly developed
countries of Europe, possessing the oldest and the
richest of spiritual traditions. All this is menaced by
the total war, and the menace extends to my own
Rhenish homeland.

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It is my conviction that the attacks of the barbaric
hordes in the west will eventually be broken. But a
conclusion must be drawn from this new experience.
The peace terms must be such as to make any further
westward aggression impossible. None of the countries
attacked harboured expansionist ideas ; none of them
menaced the existence of the German Reich. The
England of to-day, first among equals, is no longer the
colonial conqueror of the earlier times. She is now
a country like other countries, at the head of a
commonwealth of free peoples in all parts of the
world. She has adjusted herself quite naturally to
the conditions of contemporary life and does not
dream of abusing her industrial power by terrorising
her neighbours. France has definitely renounced any
ideas of conquest. Hitler’s behaviour is the ever-
renewed proof that anyone who harbours evil designs
invariably suspects others of being like himself.

By extending the war to the west, by attacking
small neutral nations which are defenceless in the
face of the German colossus, Hitler has definitely
disproved the prophecy of the founder of the empire.
The German people has not justified the hopes of
Bismarck. It has been unable to master its steed.
Under Hitler, the existence of a Greater Germany
has once more proved to be a mortal danger to the
life of the free peoples of Europe. It would be folly
to run the risk of such a perilous adventure for the
third time.

Without as within, the Hitlerian regime, as demon-
strated by Hermann Rauschning, most clear-sighted
of analysts, is nothing but complete nihilism. Four
months before the war one of Hitler’s privy coun-
cillors, Secretary of State Wilhelm Keppler, after a

TWO GERMANIES IN A UNITED EUROPE 285

dinner given by the President of the Reichsbank,
said in my presence, ‘‘It is in our interest to main-
tain maximum disorder in Europe/* This, as a
principle of diplomacy, is monstrous. Leaders who
are prepared to allow the policy of a great country
to be guided by this principle are madmen and
criminals, and deserve to be placed in a position
where they can do no further harm.

But if one reflects on what has taken place, this
Hitlerian maxim is indicative of the whole diplomacy
of the regime. Ever since he has been in power,
Hitler has endeavoured to spread disorder and strife
between all states of Europe. For four yeais he made
friendly overtures to Poland in order to facilitate the
contemplated assault. For a long time he sought —
successfully — to deceive England and France as to
his real intentions. During the first eight months of
the war he attempted to divide the two Allies. When
he annexed Austria he gave formal assurances to
Czechoslovakia. When by his blackmailing methods
he got control of the Sudetenland, he promised to
respect the independence of the remaining Czecho-
slovak territory. During the months before the war
and since the outbreak of the conflict Hitler’s Germany
posed as the fiery protector of the neutrality of the
small countries. Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxem-
burg, and Switzerland were given reiterated assurances
and formal promises. Still further to mislead their
future victims, the diplomats of the Reich remon-
strated with them, accusing them of being not neutral
enough. These Machiavelhan tactics enabled Hitler
to prepare his aggression systematically. He was thus
able to avoid the establishment of an adequate line
of defence in the west, which could only have been

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done by agreement among the smaller nations and
by co-ordinating the moderate means at their dis-
posal. Even the vaguest plans for a defensive alliance
of military staff conversations between Holland and
Belgium were regarded by the Nazi diplomats as a
menace to the Reich !

The peace that* will follow Hitler’s defeat must
guarantee Europe against a renewal of this nihilist
policy. The countries of western Europe, great and
small, are entitled to security. Born on the banks ot
the Rhine, I regard my Rhenish home as belonging
to that western Europe which must be guaranteed
against any new war-like incursion. Belgium has
been invaded twice in twenty-five years notwithstand-
ing the pledges given to her. France has for the
second time become the victim of a ruthless and
devastating modem war. Hitler attacked her despite
the solemn word given by Foreign Minister von
Ribbentrop in Paris in December, 1938.

Shortly after this Franco-German agreement, before
all the workers and employees of the August Thyssen
factories celebrating their twenty-five years’ employ-
ment in the establishments founded by my father,
I praised this pact in the following words, “ It is a
day of rejoicing for German mothers. There will
be no more war between Germany and France.” All
applauded. Only some delegates of the Nazi party
seemed none too pleased, but they were careful to
make no comment. The Germans are a peaceful
people. But they have never realised that other
nations, too, are inspired by a will to peace. Propa-
ganda has made them believe that France and England
planned to attack them.

As shown above, the Hitler regime has attempted

TWO GERMANIES IN A UNITED EUROPE 287

to extend its nihilist grip over the souls and con*
sciences of the people. A deep gulf has once more
been fixed between the real Germany, that of the
west, where Bismarck’s Kulturkampf (his great and,
possibly, isole mistake) has never been completely
forgotten or forgiven, and the Prussianised Germany
of the east. The enslavement of consciences and the
attempt to destroy Christianity are the forms assumed
by total war on the spiritual plane. What Hitler
wants is the destruction of the soul. At the present
moment the Catholic populations of the west are not
in a position to rebel. But they will never forget the
outrage committed upon their religion, their priests,
their most sacred feelings, in particular at the time of
the scandalous prosecutions for the alleged crimes of
immorality of which the Catholic Clergy was accused.
The abyss between the two Germanies can never be
bridged.

What must be saved is the true Germany, the
Germany of the west. She must continue to play
her part in a civilisation to which she has largely
contributed through the centuries, and which she
will enrich by precious values in the years to come.
The Germans of the west must be guaranteed those
fundamental rights which are the patrimony of all
peoples of the west, and that of freedom of conscience
first of all. They must be able to defend themselves
against a return of a foreign tyranny. Europe’s
security from war and the guarantee of freedom of
conscience — these arc the two great moral ideas which
must form the basis of a just and stable future peace.

Germany’s new status will not be a mere reversion
to the past. It will not mean a return to a sort
of German federation or Holy Roman Empire:

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composed of tiny principalities. A modem state, to be
independent and sovereign, must have a certain
amount of territory. After Bismarck’s Kulturkampf
and after the anti-Catholic excesses of the Nazis,
which were supported by Prussia proper, I can but
see one solution and one guarantee against the return
of such abuses — namely, that Catholic Germany
should become a Catholic monarchy.

Return to a monarchical system would not be a
mere attempt to revive a respectable historical tradi-
tion. Between the last war and the present one the
German people has proved that it is incapable of
adjusting itself to democratic institutions. It does
not know how to employ them. Following a long
series of mistakes, the Weimar Constitution, a model
of its kind, paved the way for an authoritarian govern-
ment which, in its turn, led to the dictatorship. It
must not be forgotten that it was Chancellor Bruning
who invoked the famous Article 48 of the Weimar
Constitution and, against his will, ruled for a period
of two years on lines contrary to the spirit of this
Constitution, which was no longer workable.^ A
return to the monarchy would make it unnecessary
to resort to such expedients in the future. Let us
take the case of Belgium. For the last few years this
country has had to grapple with serious domestic
difficulties. Where would it be to-day, without the
authority of a king being imposed on the parties,
above which he incarnates the country as a whole?

Moreover, the re-establishment of two German

* Author* s Note : Article 48 of the Weimar* Constitution provided
for full powers of the executive during a period of emergency pro-
claimed by the president. During such periods of emeimncy the
government could enact decree-laws, to be ratified by the Reichstag
at some later date.

TWO OERMANIB8 IN A UNITED 'EUROPE 289

monarchies, one in the west and the other in the
east, would enable each of the two states so consti-
tuted to develop a political “ personality ” of its own.
Western Germany, so rich in historic traditions and
so modem in spirit, would quite naturally return to
the traditions of the old Germany within the frame-
work of Christianity. To its east, Prussia might once
more resume its own special character as a colonial
territory, established by the Brandenburg electors
and their successors, the kings of Prussia. Who
knows ? Once freed from that lust of conquest by
which it has been devoured, that country might
exercise a useful and pacific influence in eastern
Europe.

There is nothing Utopian in this suggestion. It
corresponds to a European necessity and to present
realities in Germany. The difference between the
two regions of Germany which I have just described
is insufficiently realised abroad. The unity achieved
by Bismarck was due to a deliberate act of force ;
though this, at least, was finally approved by the
populations concerned. The alleged definitive unifi-
cation of Germany which Hitler boasts to have
accomplished is, like all the acts of the regime, merely
a sham. The former German states have disappeared
in theory ; but in fact, they have been replaced by
the satrapies of the party. Certain Gauleiters are
more powerful in their districts than were ever the
reigning princes whom they have succeeded. To
call Austria the Ostmark (Eastern March) cannot
deprive that country of its political and regional
inffividuality. Above all, the fact that the name of
Bavaria has been '* officially ** abolished does not
mean that Bavaria has disappeared. ,

290

1 PAID HITLER

But what is new in Germany of to-day is the inner
revolt of the Catholic conscience against the religious
persecutions. During the sixteenth centmy, after the
Reformation, Germany was torn asunder by religious
wars. This finally led to the institution of a regime
of tolerance and a certain freedom of conscience so
far as .religion was concerned. The modem form of
intolerance invented by the National Socialists, and
their encroachment upon the realm of personal con-
science, are in complete contradiction to the German
spirit and German historical tradition. Even in the
Prussia of the eighteenth century, Frederick the Great
was wont to say, “ Jeder soli nach seiner Fasson selig
werden ” (“ To every man his own Heaven ”) .

Rosenberg, the great “ intellectual ” of National
Socialism, is an importation from Russia. He has
not a drop of German blood in his veins. To him
and his disciples Germany owes the methods of the
“ leagues of the godless ” — the methods of Bolshevik
Russia.

There is yet another aspect of National Socialism
that has revealed the difference between the two
Germanies. The absolutism of the leaden, their
insistence upon passive obedience, the servility of
the governed — even In the highest posts — are com-
pletely foreign to our Germany of the west. In
former days the Rhenish carnival, with its gay dis-
respect of persons, had its own methods of correcting
the somewhat too Oriental mentality of certain Prus-
sian officials. The joyous laughter of the Rhinelanders
has been stifled by ffie tyranny of the regime, or at
best it has been enlisted in the service of official
policy.' But these populations of the west resent as
an outrage to their personsd dignity the suppression

TWO OERMANIES IN A UNITED EUROPE agi

of all human rights — of freedom of conscience and
liberty of opinion. The revolt is smouldering ; it
but awaits the opportunity of bursting into flame.
On the other hand, it seems that in eastern Germany
the population has adjusted itself more easily. The
extension of Prussian military discipline to all phases
of life (“ Parieren, nicht rdsonnieren ! ” — “ Obey, do not
argue ! ”) has been quite naturally accepted as the
necessary condition for the accomplishment of great
plans of conquest.

“ The Fuhrer is always right ” — that is the modern-
ised form of “ Parieren, nicht rdsonnieren ! ” Is this
servility, of which various instances have been given
in these pages, a feature of the Slav character? I
am inclined to believe it. It is certainly not European.
Never in western Europe, even before the French
Revolution, has there been such contempt of the
individual man.

Reduced to essentials, the question is not that of
dividing Germany into two parts, or the forcible
creation of two Germanics. What is necessary is
merely to re-discover the frontier between Europe
of the west and Europe of the east — a line which
Germany has sought to efface during a period of
barely a century. The true Germany, with its western
traditions, must be separated from Prussia, which
belongs to the east.

This is not a task to be carried out by the Germans
alone, and subject to their judgment alone. The war
is a crime which will certainly bring its own punish-
ment. But a purely military solution of the problem
of security would in the long run prove to be as
precarious after this war as after the last. The vic-
torious Powers could not occupy foreign territory

298

I PAID HITLER

indefinitely. Opinion in the democratic countries will
develop much as it did after the last war. In 1914,
England went to war to destroy Germany’s naval
power. Twenty years later, England sanctioned the
re-birth of the Germany navy and concluded with
Hitler the naval treaty of 1935. Even France ended
by admitting the re-militarisation of the Rhineland
and the re-establishment of compulsory military ser-
vice in Germany. Therefore, the victors would be
unwise to reckon with the future maintenance of
their present spirit of defence, since even .Hitler
succeeded in lulling it to sleep. What must be done
is to devise a thoroughly effective system, capable of
living by its own means.

Moreover, the proposed separation of Germany
from Prussia should be undertaken in a new political
spirit. In the Europe of to-day there is no place
for disputes over questions of supremacy. Treaties of
Westphalia are out of date. The maintenance of
fortified garrisons on foreign soil has been a thing
of the past these fifty years. To believe that a great
country can for long be kept in a state of impotence
is a dangerous delusion. The terrible hour of awaken-
ing that has just struck for Europe is a definite proof
of the obsolete character of the Treaty of Versailles.
What must be done to-day is to remove all obstacles to
the future foundation of the United States of Europe.

The economic field may perhaps prove the most
fertile in new solutions. A sound economy, permitting
all the peoples of Europe to live and to prosper, is
fundamentally of greater interest to them than the
ambitions of dictators who first ruin their country
by excessive armaments and finally plunge all peoples
into aiiifortime, including their own.

APPENDIX

SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS
NAMED IN THIS BOOK

OTTO BRAUN* Before tlie World War, he was Secre-
tary of the Social Democratic Party. After the
revolution, he became Minister of Agriculture in the
Prussian State Cabinet. In 1920, he was made Prime
Minister of Prussia, and remained in office with some
short interruptions until June 20th, 1932, when he
was removed by von Papen’s coup d^itat. He left
for Switzerland on the day of the general election,
March 5th, 1933. His merits are numerous, and he
was a good servant to the Social Democratic Party.

COUNT BROCKDORFF-RANTZAU. Scion of an old
aristocratic family, he was German Minister to Den-
mark during the first World War. A liberal-minded
statesman, he maintained friendly relations with the
German Social Democratic party. After the German
Revolution, Chancellor Scheidemann appointed him
minister of foreign affairs. In 1919 he refused to
sign the Treaty of Versailles, after trying in vain to
obtain the Allies’ consent to admit Germany to the
peace negotiations in Paris. After the signature of
293

894

APPENDIX

the Rapallo Treaty between Germany and Soviet
Russia, he was appointed German Ambassador < to
Moscow, where he ied several years later.

HEINRICH BRUNING. As a member of the Catholic
Centre party, Briining was close to the Catholic
labour movement. From 1921 to 1930 he was the
executive president of the German Gewerkschaftsbund —
the central organisation of the Catholic labour unions.
In the Reichstag he was entrusted with the annual
budget reports. In 1930, he was elected leader of the
Catholic party. In the same year, on March 31st,
President Hindenburg called upon him to form a new
cabinet. There is no doubt that Briining took office
in the most difficult period possible, when unemploy-
ment had reached its peak, when German banks
declared themselves unable to fulfil their obliga,tions
toward their foreign creditors, and when the National
Socialists were threatening the peace of the country.
He saw himself obliged to govern by emergency
decrees and by restricting the authority of the Reich-
stag, a policy which he based on the provisions made
by the Constitution (Article 48) for times of emergency.
Unwittingly he thus created a precedent for Hitler,
and enabled him to eliminate the parliament without
violating the Constitution. In 1932, President Hin-
denburg, won over to Papen’s intrigues, asked BrUning
in a few curt words to resign his office.

DR. HEINRICH CLASS. Class was a lawyer in May-
cnce up to 1919, and was Chairman of the Pan-
Gkrznan League. Under the influence of Class, the
League adopted an ever more radically nationalistic
policy which did not fail to influence the policy of
the Imperial Government, reaching its climax in the
Moroccan crises of 1908 and 1911. In 19x3, Class

APPENDIX

295

published a book under the pseudonym Daniel
Fryman entitled If I Were the Emperor . Political
Truths and Necessities, It is remarkable that many of
Class’s suggestions have been almost textually in-
corporated in the National Socialist Party platform,
and carried out in detail by Adolf Hitler.

WILHELM CUNO. Under Kaiser Wilhelm II, he was
Geheimrat in the Reich Treasury. Albert Ballin,
founder and director general of the Hamburg-America
Line, made him a director in this company ; and
after Ballin’s suicide in 1918, Cuno became his
successor. In this capacity he attended the Geneva
Conference as economic adviser to the German
delegation. Cuno belonged to the German People’s
party until the Kapp Putsch of 1920 ; from then on
he was non-partisan. In 1922, President Ebert
appointed him Chancellor of the Reich, in which
office he succeeded Chancellor Wirth. His cabinet
showed little diplomatic skill when negotiating with
the Allies on the question of war reparations. As a
consequence, the Reparations Commission, in 1922,
according to the reparation clauses of the Versailles
Treaty, ’declared Germany to be in default, a decision
which led to the occupation of the industrial districts
of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops. Cuno
died January ist, 1933.

MAJOR DUSTERBERG. He was a member of the
German General Staff during the World War. An
intimate of General Ludendorff, he organised after
the German collapse a league of German World War
veterans, called the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet). The
Stahlhelm, a nationalistic organisation, played an
important part in subsequent years. Dftsterberg

296

APPENDIX

sufTered a severe defeat as a candidate to the presi-
dential elections in 1932. When Hitler became
Chancellor of the Reich, Dtisterberg had to resign his
chairmanship of the Stahlhelm, owing to his partly
Jewish origin.

FRIEDRICH EBERT. A saddler’s assistant and later
trade union official in Bremen, Ebert soon reached
an important position both in the German labour
union movement and in the Social Democratic party.
After August Bebel’s death he succeeded him as
chairman of the Social Democratic party. When the
revolution started in 1918, Prince Max of Baden,
then Chancellor of the Reich, handed over the govern-
ment powers to him. When the German Republic
was proclaimed, Ebert became president of the pro-
visional “ Government of the People’s Commissioners.”
This government, which included three representa-
tives of each of the two wings of the Socialist Party,
remained in office till the convening of the Legislative
German National Assembly. The National Assembly
elected Ebert President of the German Republic, and
he remained in office until his death in 1925. During
the last years of his life Ebert was the victim of re-
peated and malicious attacks by nationalistic elements,
accusing him of having encouraged, in 1917, the
strike of German munition factory workers and of
having thus contributed to Germany’s defeat.

CAPTAIN EHRHARDT. Ehrhardt was the leader of
one of the most active German “ Free Corps,” i.e.,
one of the numerous illegal military formations
founded all over Germany between 1918 and 1921
with the purpose of contravening the disarmament
clauses of the Versailles Treaty.

APPENDIX

297

MATTHIAS ERZBERGER. Before the first World
War, Erzberger represented the Catholic Centre
party in the Reichstag. During the war he made
several trips abroad with a view to preparing possible
peace negotiations. In 1917 he played an important
part in bringing about the Reichstag resolution which
induced the Pope to offer his good offices as peace
mediator. This, and his violent criticism of the
Imperial government’s financial policy, earned him the
hatred of the nationalistic groups. After the German
collapse, he was sent by his government to negotiate
the armistice terms with Marshal Foch in the forest
of Compi^jgne, where he had to sign the terms
dictated by the Allies. This not only increased
Erzberger’s unpopularity with the nationalists, but
also meant that the republican government had made
the mistake of burdening itself with the responsibility
of losing the war. Erzberger was accused of selling
Germany out to her enemies. Dr. Helfferich, a
former Imperial secretary of state, even accused him
of corruption. In 1920, a short time after his resigna-
tion as Minister of Finance, Erzberger was shot to
death by several young nadonalists while he was
spending a short holiday in Wttrttemberg.

WALTHER FUNK. Funk was editor of the economic
section of the Berliner Bdrsenzeitungy a daily which was
considered to be the political organ of the War
Ministry. Funk’s main function was to keep up the
paper’s social relations with high finance and in-
dustry, and he was official Economic Adviser of the
Nazi Party for a considerable time before Hitler
came to power. This very mediocre journalist
succeeded Dr. Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of
Economy in 1938, and as President of the Reichsbank
in 1939

298 APPENDIX

JOHANN GIESBERTS. He was a member of the
Catholic labour unions who, in the years 1919-22,
had reached the office of secretary-general of the
German Catholic labour unions. As such, he exerted
a great influence on the policy of the Catholic Centre
party in the Reichstag, of which he had for long been
a member. He was considered one of the principal
representatives of the left, socialistically inclined,
wing of the Centre and constantly endeavoured to
maintain good relationships between his party and
the Social Democrats, He was minister of postal
communications in several cabinets. After Hitler
seized the power, Giesberts was arrested by Storm
Troopers and dragged in triumph through the streets.
After being held for some tiuie in a concentration
camp he was at last set free, after terrible humiliations.

WILHELM GRONER. As chief of the Transport
Division of the German High Command, Groner
distinguished himself during the first World War by
organising military railway transportation. For some
time he was Chief of the Kriegsamt,” a post some-
what approaching that of a Minister of Munitions.
Being democratic in his spirit, Groner successfully
accomplished his task in collaboration with the
leaders of the German labour unions and the Social
Democratic part^. He succeeded Ludendorff as
General Quartiermeister and was thus, to all intents
and purposes, Chief of the General Staff. He was
one of the generals who advised the Emperor to
abdicate. After the German collapse he was respon-^
adble for the good order in which the German armies
returned to their homes. Grdner became minister of
defence in Brtining’s cabinet, and eventually also took
over the ministry of the interior. While in charge of
internal affairs he forbade the wearinff of ** political ”
uniforms, a measure aimed at the Nazi SA and SS

APPENDIX

299

organisations. Soon after, he was overthrown by
the intrigues of General von Schleicher, his former
subordinate in the ministry of defence.

MAX HOELZ. A Communist agitator. Max Hoelz
played an important part in the labour revolt of 1921,
which he organised in Central Germany, especially in
Thuringia. This uprising was essentially an answer
to the nationalistic revolt which had found an in-
glorious end in the Kapp Putsch. Hoelz, an idealistic
adventurer, enjoyed for a short time a romantic
reputation similar to that of the notorious banditi of
the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries in
Germany. The revolt being suppressed by the
intervention of the army, Hoelz was captured and
condemned to imprisonment for life. Freed by an
amnesty of the Republican government, he went to
Russia. Nothing further is known about him.

ALFRED HUGENBERG. Once a youth of literary pre-
tensions, Hugenberg entered the Prussian civil service,
developed his reactionary political tendencies, and
married the daughter of the influential mayor of
Frankfort-on-Main, Adickes. This speeded his career j
he became a Geheimrat and was of great help to the
ICingdom of Prussia when its government expropriated
the Poles living in the Prussian province of Posen.
His success in this affair made him one of the most
outstanding leaders of the anti-Polish movement in
Germany. During the first World War, Herr Krupp
von Bohlen und Halbach engaged him as an adminis-
trative offlcial of the Krupp munition plants, l After
Germany’s collapse Hugenberg entered the German’
National People’s party, the reorganised party of the
Prussian Junkers. Through his hands flowed the
funds collected by German industrialists for the

300 APPENDIX

purpose of combating the German Republic. More-
over, he founded the publicity firm ALA, which
gradually gained complete control over the distribu-
tion of industrial advertisements, both to German and
foreign papers ; and he created a series of press
agencies which sold news and editorials at low rates
to the then destitute National Socialist press. By and
by he became the head of a chain of newspapers,
which he bought during the inflation period, and to
which he gave a National Socialist twist. He exerted
a great influence upon the German publishing firm
of August Schorl, and practically owned the greatest
German motion-picture firm, the Ufa. Having be-
come the absolute boss of the German National
People’s party, he concluded an official alliance with
the National Socialists in 1932. Sure of his and his
party’s position, and confiding in Hitler’s promise to
give him the ministries of economy and agriculture,
he became one of the most active advocates of Hitler’s
taking over power. Indeed, Hitler had engaged him-
self to President von Hindenburg not to change his
cabinet policy within the next four years without
Hugenberg’s consent. Hitler “ kept ” his promises in
his usual manner, and forced Hugenberg to resign all
his offices on June 27th, 1933. Hugenberg’s party
was outlawed along with all the others. Officially a
member of the !l^eichstag, Hugenberg is to-day one
of the numerous silent and disappointed old men
who made Hitler what he is.

DR. WOLFGANG KAPP. As director general of the
Agricultural Mortgage Bank in Konigsberg, Kapp
founded during the World War the German Patriotic
party, whose, programme opposed all endeavours for
peace and demanded vast territorial annexations in
France, Belgium, and Russia. Under a pseudonym
he published his views in an aggressive pamphlet.

APPENDIX

301

After the proclamation of the German Republic,
Kapp conspired with all the available nationalistic
groups and, in March, 1920, he proclaimed the over-
throw of the Coalition government, made himself
“ Chancellor ” of the Reich and formed his own
cabinet. After a few days, however, this coup, known
as the Kapp Putsch, proved a failure, as the higher
state officials refused to collaborate with the usurping
government,!’ while the workers of all Germany
proclaimed a general strike. The legally constituted
government, presided over by Gustav Bauer, returned
to Berlin from Stuttgart, whither it had fled, and
resumed its leadership of German affairs.

ROBERT LEY. Ley is the head of the Nazi Party
Organisation Department and of the German Labour
Front to which all German workers are forced to
belong. His strong addiction to alcohol earned him
a bad reputation when he was a delegate to the
International Labour Conference at Geneva. Once
the publisher of a Cologne gossip paper, he enjoys
to-day a position of unrestricted power. The German
Labour Front has a membership of twenty million
workers, whose annual contributions arc used for
the financing of various enterprises. Moreover, the
Labour Front took over without compensation
the “ Bank of German Workers and Employees,”
which, before Hitler’s rule, was the bank of the
German labour unions. One of Ley’s most profitable
enterprises, the “ People’s Car,” is dealt with in
detail in this book. Dependent on the Labour Front
also is the institution called Strength Through Joy,
which enables its members to make cheap week-end
and holiday trips, to attend theatres and concerts at
reduced prices, and to take cheap cruises on steamers
built for this express purpose, but which to-day are
used by the navy for troop transports.

302

APPENDIX

ERICH LUDENDORFF. Considered even before the
World War one of Germany’s best generals, Luden-
dorflF proved his ability in the taking of the Belgian
fortress of Li^ge. As Field Marshal Hindenburg’s
chief of staff, he is reputed to have won the battle
of the Masurian Lakes, on the Russian front. When
Hindenburg took over the High Command in 1916,
Ludendorff was associated with him. Ludendorff’s
conduct of the war on the western front has been
the subject of a wide controversy between military
experts. When Hindenburg’s last offensive of 1918
proved a failure, Ludendorff insisted that the govern-
ment of Prince Max of Baden should ask the enemy
for an armistice. Having expected a different course
of events than that which took place, Ludendorff
feared, after the establishment of the German Republic,
that he might be made responsible before a court-
martial, and fled to Sweden in disguise. But he
discovered that his fears were unfounded, and soon
returned to Germany, where he at first kept quiet,
while busily writing his memoirs. Having moved to
Munich, he re-entered public life by plotting with
Kapp, by collecting funds for Hitler, and by par-
ticipating in Hitler’s Putsch of 1923. Although he
was cleared of the charge of high treason, Ludendorff,
it seems, began from then on to suffer from a mental
ailment. He soon became entirely subjected to his
second wife. Dr. Mathilde Ludendorff, who, although
she was a specialist for mental diseases, founded
a new ‘‘ Aryan ” religion which she called The
Well of German Strength.” Ludendorff became
her prophet and thus lost most of his former
friends. When Hitler, with whom he had
also had a quarrel, repeatedly offered him the
command of the German armies, Ludendorff* rc-
flised.

APPENDIX

303

HERMANN MULLER. Mtiller began his career as a
commercial traveller, but he became Editor of a
Social Democratic newspaper and, later, a full time
official of the Party. He was Minister of Foreign
Affairs in the short-lived government of Gustav Bauer
from June, 1919, to March, 1920. He was one of
those who signed the Treaty of Versailles, and jointly
with Stresemann, he endeavoured to establish friendly
relations with the victorious countries and to make
the treaty more bearable to the German nation.
However, when he led the German delegation at the
League of Nations Assembly in 1928, during Strese-
mann’s first illness, his lack of diplomacy brought
about a serious tension between him and Briand
and Austen Chamberlain, a tension which Strese-
mann had to relieve later on. Mtiller was succeeded
by Hermann Brtining in 1930, and died some time
after.

GUSTAV NOSKE. For many years Noske was editor in
chief of the Volksstimme in Chemnitz, Saxony, a
moderate Social Democratic paper. Elected to the
Reichstag, he criticised the High Command during
the first World War and on the strength of this was
appointed war minister by the republican govern-
ment after the revolution. While in office Noske was
a sharp opponent of the radical Socialists and the
Communists, which earned him the hatred of both
groups. On the other hand, he came more and more
under the influence of the reactionary officers who
were among his entourage in the War Ministry. He
was destined to be disappointed in the confidence
which he had placed in them, for they turned against
the republic during the Kapp Putsch. When the
democratic government returned to Berlin after the
Putsch, Noske had to resign.

304

APPENDIX

KARL RADEK. This Polish Social Democrat emigrated
to Germany before the first World War. In Germany
he collaborated on several social democratic news-
papers. During the War, he went to Switzerland,
where he became a c ose friend of Lenin, whom he
accompanied to Russia in 1917. After Germany’s
collapse, the Soviet government sent Radek to Ger-
many as a Russian emissary. Back in Russia, Radek
distinguished himself by his journalistic activities. In
the Soviet purge of 1937, he was condemned to ten
years’ imprisonment.

ERICH H. A. RAEDER. A naval officer of long
experience, Raeder was made admiral and appointed
Chief of the Navy Command by the German govern-
ment in 1928. In 1935, Hitler renewed his commission,
and in 1939, he made him Grand Admiral {Gross-
admiral). Since 1938 Raeder has been a member of
Hitler’s secret Cabinet Council.

HERMANN RAUSCHNING. For many years Rauschn-
ing was one of Hitler’s younger men of confidence.
Eventually, Hitler appointed him President of the
Senate of the Free City of Danzig. After Rauschning
had adhered to the National Socialist party for many
years, despite its crimes and horrors, he suddenly fled
from (Jermany and attempted to justify his conversion
in several books. Of particular interest is his book,
The Voice of Destruction^ as it contains conversations
with Hitler which, before the outbreak of the war,
seemed to be artificial and not quite trustworthy, but
the veracity of which has been confirmed by the
events in Belgium, Holland, and France.

ERNST ROHM. At the beginning of Hitler’s career,
Rdhm, an officer of the former Imperial army, helped
to finance the National Socialist party by making use

APPENDIX

305

of the treasury of the German army. After spending
a few years in the Republic of Bolivia, where he was
engaged in the reorganisation of the army, R 5 hm
returned to Germany and began his intimate friend-
ship with Hitler. Inspired by the more violent
methods used in South American revolutions he re-
organised the SA troops as a preparation for the
coming internal struggle in Germany. After Hitler
seized the power, Rohm widened the scope of his
SA troops ; he thus met the opposition of the Reichs-
wehr, whose officers accused him of planning to
put the SA organisation above the regular army.
Mysterious events led Hitler — certainly not without
the influence of the army circles — to sec a danger
in the spirit that animated the Storm Troopers.
On June 30th, 1934, Hitler hurried to Munich where,
he was ‘‘ told,” Rohm was preparing a revolt. Adolf
Hitler killed his friend, after having him waked firom
his sleep. It is known what horrors followed this
murder ; numberless loyal National Socialists lost
their lives only because some of their party comrades
harboured vague suspicions, or had grudges against
them.

DR. HJALMAR SCHACHT. Having studied national
economy at the University of Berlin, Schacht made a
rapid banking career and was appointed, despite his
youth, director of the “ National Bank for Germany,*^
which was subsequently merged with the Darmstadter
Bank. During the first World War he held an
important post in the German bank administration
in occupied Belgium. After the War he was one of
the founders of the Democratic party and one of the
stoutest advocates of democracy. Just after the in-
flation period the Reichstag entrusted him with the
task of controlling Germany’s currency. When the
German Reichsbank was re-established as the powerful

3o6

APPENDIX

Central Bank of Germany, thanks to the Dawes agree-
ments, Schacht was made the president of this in-
stitution despite the opposition of high finance and
the administrative board of the Reichsbank. Several
years later Schacht quite unexpectedly resigned his
Democratic party membership with the explanation
that he opposed the party’s decision to refuse com-
pensation to the former German reigning princes for
the funds they had left in Germany ; and that he,
Schacht, in his quality as president of the Reichsbank,
could not account to any foreign government for his
party’s declaration in favour of the confiscation of
private property. In 1928, Schacht went to Paris,
sent as an expert by the German government in order
to take part in a conference at which an alleviation of
Germany’s reparations obligations was to be dis-
cussed. Schacht’s attitude was so belligerent that the
conference almost blew up. After the German
government accepted ’the Young Plan, Schacht re-
signed from the presidency of the Reichsbank, but he
was recalled to the post by Hitler in 1933. In 1934,
he was entrusted with the ministry of economics. It
was he who invented the subtle methods which
enabled the Nazi regime to increase the scope of
Germany’s inflation without the German public
realising it. He reigned from his post as Minister
of Economics in November, 1937, and from the
Presidency of the Reichsbank in January, 1939. His
resignation was supposed to be due to ^ opposition
to Marshal Goering, who then took over the leader-
ship of the whole of German economy. Nevertheless
Dr. Schacht is still at the service of the German
government in whose interest he has made several
trips abroad.

SCHLAGETER. The young man played an active role
in several German ** Free Corps ’’ {Sh Ehrhardt).

APPENDIX

307

During the occupation of the Ruhr he was accused of
sabotage by the French authorities, and shot. Since
then the National Socialists count him among their
national saints.

DR. KURT SCHMIDT. He held for a short time the
office of minister of economy in the National Socialist
government ; he resigned because he did not wish to
be responsible for the fact that under the Nazi regime
the ministries had to take their orders from National
Socialist party officials, in making political and
economic decisions. After resigning he returned to
his former position of director general in a large
German insurance company.

HUGO STINNES. A prominent figure in the coal, iron,
and steel industries in the Ruhr region. During the
first World War he not only received huge orders
from the army, but also managed to exercise a ^eat
influence on General von Ludendorff. He was
particularly interested in the plan of annexing the
Belgian industrial region of Campinc. After Ger-
many’s defeat Stinnes became a member of the
German People’s party, in which he bitterly opposed
Stresemann, its founder. After he had become con-
vinced that the German government did not intend
to stop the inflation by ceasing to print new bank-
notes, he decided to fight the German currency on a
large scale and bought up all the enterprises he possibly
could. Eventually he owned not only his original
coal mines and iron and steel plants, but a chain of
factories varying from paper mills to oil refineries and
motion-picture industries. Moreover, he owned the
Deutsche Allgemeine Z^itung^ an important Berlin daily.
After the German currency was stabilised he lacked
sufficient capital to keep all his enterprises going. A

3o8

APPENDIX

sudden death helped him out of this embarrassment,
the solution of which he left to his sons. They failed
in their attempts to borrow the needed capital from
various bankers, and thus the huge Stinnes concern
collapsed.

GREGOR STRASSER. Born in Bavaria, Gregor Strasser
settled in Munich, where he owned a pharmacy.
He joined the National Socialist movement in its
early stages and became one of Hitler’s cldsest col-
laborators. In 1932, a disagreement arose between
him and Hitler, because he disapproved of Hitler’s
intention to seize power without sharing it with any
other party. Strasser began negotiations with General
Schleicher with a view to entering Schleicher’s cabinet
and enabling the general to establish a government
supported by all the elements of German labour.
Strasser counted on a large following in case the
National Socialist party^ should split. However,
Hitler succeeded in isolating him and subsequently
took his revenge on Strasser (who in the meantime
had become the administrator of a large chemical
concern) by ordering his murder on the night of
June 30th, 1934.

JULIUS STREICHER.* The name of Julius Streicher
is associated with the Sturmer^ a Nuremberg weekly
founded in 1922 and notorious for its anti-Semitic
and pornographic character. It also attacked every
person whom Streicher suspected of republican sym-
pathies. He was charged and sentenced more than
once by Law Courts before the Nazis came to power.
This, however, did not prevent him, aS one of Hitler’s
most intimate friends, from being given" absolute
control over the Bavarian province of Franconia.
The “ Czar of Franconia ” still publishes his blood-
thirsty paper, which has the government’s oflScial

APPENDIX

309

sanction, and he is the leader of the German pogrom
policy. His weekly is, of course, being widely dis-
tributed in the countries now occupied by Germany.

DR. GUSTAV STRESEMANN. Stresemann was a
member of the National Liberal party which he repre-
sented in the Reichstag before the first World War.
During the War he advocated unrestricted submarine
warfare. In the last year of the War he changed
his opinions, asked for political reforms, and fought
the reactionary Prussian Junkers. After the German
collapse the founders of the new Democratic party
did not forgive him for his former attitude, and refused
to give him a leading position in their party. This
obliged him to found the German People’s party.
When the Ruhr occupation caused the total collapse
of German finance and economy, Stresemann was
called upon to form a new cabinet, which he did on
the basis of a party coalition. Stresemann’s foreign
policy led to the Dawes agreements, the Locarno
conference in 1925, and, in 1926, to Germany’s
admission into the League of Nations Council. He
won the friendship of Austen Chamberlain and
especially of Aristide Briand, which lasted until
Stresemann’s death. Having achieved more for
Germany than any other single man, yet being
opposed in his policy by the members of his own
party, he succumbed to a severe illness and died in
the fall of 1929.

ALBERT VOGLER. In Imperial Germany, Vdgler
was already one of the most influential directors in
the industrial region of the Ruhr. Subsequently he
became director general of The United Steel Works,
Inc., the most powerful and most extensive industrisd
enterprise in Germany, the president of which was

310

APPENDIX

Fritz Thysscn. After the revolution that followed the
first World War, he was elected to the Reichstag by
the conservative German People’s party and became
a member of the Reich Economic Council. At all
times he supported all the groups that opposed the
republican cabinets. Nevertheless he was sent by the
government, along with Dr. Schacht, to the pre-
liminary discussions of the Young Plan, which took
place in Paris. While the discussions continued, he
suddenly returned to Germany to take council with
his friends, the Ruhr industrialists, and resigned his
mandate for the reason that he did not like the Paris
proposals. In the subsequent deliberations in the
Reichstag on the subject of the Young Plan, he was
the leader of the nationalistic opposition which
refused to accept the plan.

GUSTAV VON KAHR. He was the leader of the
Bavarian federalist independence movement, which
intended to put Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
on the Bavarian throne. Being appointed Com-
missioner of the Bavarian State in 1922, his attitude
encouraged the then incipient National Socialist
movement in Munich. When Hitler, in common with
Ludendorff, proclaimed his own government in a
Munich beer hall (the BUrgerbrau ”) on November
gth, 1923, he was certain of having Kahr on his side.
During that very night, however, Kahr recognised the
danger and uselessness of the new movement, and he
ordered the police to shoot at the National Socialists
who, led by Hitler and Ludendorff, were solemnly
marching to the Munich Feldherrnhalle. His coup
having failed, Hitler was convicted of high treason
and condemned to prison confinement in the Fortress
of Landsberg. Hitler took his revenge and ordered
the assassination of Kahr soon after he came to power.

APPENDIX

3II

FRANZ VON PAPEN. As German military attach^
in Washington during the World War, Papen had a
large share of responsibility in the notorious acts of
sabotage throughout the United States, which con-
tributed to America’s entry into the war. After the
war was over Papen acquired a large fortune by
marrying the daughter of a rich industrialist of the
Saar region. He was a member of the Prussian
Diet, and when his and General Schleicher’s intrigues
overthrew the cabinet of his party colleague Briining,
in 1932, Papen became Chancellor of the Reich.
Once in office he not only attempted to introduce a
dictatorship in Germany, but also staged a coup in
Prussia by deposing all the members of the Prussian
government. During the short time he remained in
office Papen was extremely successful in his foreign
policy, for at a conference in Lausanne he secured
the Allies’ consent to the cancellation of German
reparations after a final payment of one billion
Reichsmarks in cash. Papen’s government was
heavily defeated in the Reichstag Elections, and was
succeeded by General Schleicher. Several months
later Papen took his revenge and caused the fall of
Schleicher, who was succeeded by Adolf Hitler. On
June 30th, 1934, when Rohm and many others were
assassinated, armed troops penetrated Papen’s office
and killed his secretary. However, Papen himself
remained in favour with Hitler, who employed him
on several important diplomatic missions. As German
ambassador in Vienna, Papen prepared the Austrian
Anschluss ; subsequently, he became German
ambassador in Ankara, Turkey.

KURT VON SCHLEICHER. Formerly a member of
the General Staff of the Imperial army, he was
given an important administrative post in the defence

312

APPENDIX

ministry of the German Republic. He was soon
promoted to the rank of colonel, and then general.
Being fond of politics, he favoured the so-called
Black Reichswehr ” — the illegal army divisions
whose existence he skilfully hid both from the Reich-
stag and the Allies. Schleicher was sympathetic
to the National Socialist movement from its very
beginning ; when General Groner, minister of defence
in the Brilning cabinet, forbade the wearing of uniforms
to the National Socialist militia, Schleicher plotted
the overthrow of General Groner, his superion When
he had succeeded in overthrowing Brtining’s cabinet
Schleicher considered his time had not yet come, and
used Franz von Papen as his “ stooge.” Papen was
suddenly dismissed by President von Hindenburg
under the influence of Schleicher’s renewed intrigues.
On the President’s express wish, Schleicher openly
entered the field of politics and accepted the formation
of a new cabinet. Although he intended to govern
dictatorially, he desired to give his regime an appear-
ance of popularity by courting labour. His true
intention, however, was to separate the labour unions
from their affiliated parties. Simultaneously, he in-
tended to provoke a split in the National Socialbt
party by drawing Gregor Strasser, one of its leaders,
to his side. However, before these preparations
could bring about' the desired success, Schleicher was
no longer Chancellor. Papen had taken his revenge ;
he had turned President von Hindenburg against
Schleicher by telling him that the general was planning
an armed revolt against him and that troops were
stationed in Potsdam, ready to march on Berlin.
Schleicher was dismissed by the President and re-
placed by Hitler. On June 30th, 1934, Schleicher
and his wife, who tried to protect him, were shot dead
by a group of Storm Troopers. The semi-official
explanation for his death was that he had conspired

APPENDIX 313

with the French ambassador, M. Franfois-Poncct.
In fact, Franfois-Poncet, a friend of Schleicher’s, had
merely reported to Paris that it was practically certain
that the army would make an end of the regime
before the end of the year. Moreover, Schleicher
was said to possess documents proving General
Goering corrupt, and also the proof that Hitler had
come into possession of the Order of the Iron Cross
by irregular means.

INDEX

Bechstein, Karl, 123
Bismarck, Prince, 23, 34, 73,
/05«, 164, sojn, 280-2
Blombcrg, General von, 69-70
Brauchitsch, General von, 193
Braun, Otto, 123, 293
Briand, Aristide, 98, 122
Brockdorff-Rantzau, Count,
90-2, /ojn, 293-4
Brilning, Heinrich, 61, 123,
204, 205, 257, 288, 294

Catholic Centre Party, 89-
90, 93y 220

Chamberlain, Neville, 34, 183
Class, Heinrich, no, 294-5
Cuno, Wilhelm, 110, 112, 295

Darrs, Walter, 206-8, 261
Dassel, General von, 83
Dawes, Charles G., 125-1261%
Dillon, Clarence, 120
Dollfuss, Engelbert, 190-1
DOsterberg, Major, 123, 295-6

Ebert, Friedrich, 90, 92, 94,
10511

Eher, Franz, 204-5
Ehrhardt, Captain, 95, 296-7
Eichhorn, Emil, 80-1, 83
Eisner, Kurt, 112
Erzberger, Matthias, 89-90,
93» 297

Florian, Gauleiter op Dus-
seldorf, 222-6, 234-5
Fritsch, General von, 193-4
Funk, Walther, 130-1, 169-70,
297-8

Gallen, von. Bishop of Mun-
ster, 240-2

Giesberts, Johann, 90, 298
Goebbek, Josef, 41, 134, 164,
198, 213-4

Goering, Hermann, 33, 36-7,
39, 40-2, 44-9, 50-1, 55,
66-8, 69, 1 18, 13 1, 141, 158,
167, 179-88, 194, 198, 200-
4, 219-22, 224, 240, 255,
270-1

3*7

INDEX

318

Gocring Works, 52, 153, 180-1
Grdncr, Wilhelm von, 137,
309-10

Heine, Heinrich, 217
Hess, Rudolf, 46, 55, 129, 134,
138, 226

Himmler, Heinrich, jin, x68,
189-90, 194-6, 198, 206, 208
Hindenburg, Field Marshal
von, 66-7, 91-2, 113, i34-5>
I 37 > r43-4ny 200

Hider, Adolf, 19-22, 23, 34-6,
44, 52-7, 62-7, 73-4, lOI,
109-19,. 124, 129, i3*‘'5>
140-2, 157-85 165-6, 171-’
95, 246-7, 253, 268-9, 273-
8, 283-7 €t passim
Hoelz, M^jc, III, 298-9
Hugenberg, Alfred, 65, 12 1,
128, 134, 141-2, 299-300

L G. Farben Industrie, 139,
i55> *86, 259, 273

Kahr, Gustav von, 113, 114,
117, 310

Kapp Wolfgang, 94, 95, no,
1 1 7, 300-1

Kapp Putsch, the, 95-6
Kauftnann, Gauleiter, 227-8
Kepler, Wilhelm, 47, 56, 183,
284-5

ELiel Mutinies, 77, 78-9,
Kirdorf, Gehcimrat, 98, 129-
31, 134, 142

KlOckner Works, 98, 181
Koehler, Bernard, 175

Koppenberg, founder of the
Junkers Works, 270-2
Krupp, Friedrich von Pohlen,
98, i 34-5» 138-95 166
Krupp Works, i8i

Ley, Robert, 133, 156, 175,
210-3, 301-2

Ludendorff, Erich, 46, 78, 94-
5, 109-11, ii3-4> 116-7, 31*
Luther, Hans, 83-4, 256

Magkensen, General von,
158, 192, 200, 216
Mein Kampf, 54, 55-6, 72-3,
124, 204, 235, 283
Miiller, Hermann, 139, 302
Miillcr, Ludwig, 230

Niemoller, Martin, 45,

215-75 234

Noskc, Gustav, 94, 123,
302-3

Papen, Franz von, 53-4, 121,
/27«, 140-1, i43 - 4ri , 163-4,
19*5 235, 312

Poincar6, Raymond, 93, 97,
98, 113, 122

Rausghninq, Hermann, 149-
150, 284, 303-4
Radck, Karl, 83-4, 303
Rath, vom, 222, 225
Rath^u, Walter, 119

INDEX

Reeder, Regierungsprasident,
52, 57

Reinhardt, Chief of German
Private Banks, 48-9
Remnitz, von, 37, 38, 40-1,
42-3, 48, 55, 215
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 34,
48, 55> 72, 198-9, 279
Rdhm, Ernst, 118-9, *92, 206,
260, 304

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 152,
221

Rosenberg, Alfred, 196, 209-
*0, 235-6, 240, 290
Rothschild family, the, 190-1
Rupprccht, Crown Prince, 1 14,
”5

SCHACHT, HjALMAR, 68 , 120 ,
168-9, *75-8, 206, 219, 255,
258-60, 269-70, 304-6
Scheubner-Richter, Max Erwin
von. III, 1 16

Schlagcter, “ hero ” of Na-
tional Socialist Party, lox,
308

Schleicher, Kurt von, 137-9,
Z43-6n, 260-1, 312-4
Schmidt, Kurt, 156, 197, 222,
306

Schroder, Kurt von, 49, 53,
140, 146

Schuschnigg, Kurt von, 61, 191
geeckt. General, no, 115-6,
117

Skoda Works, 276
Spann, Othmar, 155, 156,

/59a, x6iii

319

Spartacus League, the, 78, S8n
Stahn, 34, 35, 56, 71, 73-4,
i35> 261

Stinnes, Hugo, 79, 84, 98,
109, 151, 306-7
Strasser, Gregor, 132-5, 137-8,
I43n, 146, 157, 307
Streicher, Julius, 158-9, 221,
308

Stresemann, Gustav, 102-311^
1 12, 308-9

Terboven, Gauleiter of
Essen, 33, 36, 41-2, 45, 49,

243

Thyssen, August, 53, 64, 79-83,
89. 99> *53-4> *88-9
Thyssen Works, 53, 64, 86, 99,
258

Thyssen Works at Hamborn,

79-83

Thysse.n Works at Mulheim,
83-5> 95 > 99-100, 286

United Steel Works, 41,
51-2, 181, 186-8, 243
VOgler, Albert, 41, 42-3, 44,
53> 58, 7*-2, 120, 142, 195,
2X7> 255, 309
VOgler, Eugen, 243-4, 246
Voroshiloff, Marshal, 277

Young Plan, the, 65, 118-25,
i26n, 131, 149

ZiCHY, Count, 36-8, 53

DATE OF ISSUE

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